Irina Palm

Maggie is a widow in her fifties living in a small English town. Her grandson is seriously ill and the only treatment available is in Australia; the family does not have the money for the journey and the treatment. She goes to London to look for work. In Soho she sees a sign and goes in; the job is at a sex club and the work is manual, through a hole in a wall. She takes it. At the club they give her a name: Irina Palm. It soon turns out she is good at the work, and the gossip starts back home. Sam Garbarski directs. Marianne Faithfull plays Maggie and Miki Manojlović plays Miki, who runs the club. Marianne Faithfull was among the best known singers of the sixties and appears here almost without makeup, as an entirely ordinary woman. The film played in the main competition of the Berlin Film Festival in 2007. The attitude the narrative takes is not to shame; the film neither elevates the work nor presents the character as someone in need of rescue. Its best sections are the ones in the town; the neighbours' bearing is harder than the work itself. The relationship with the club owner is its weakest side, and toward the end the film moves somewhere familiar. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet European drama and unusual leads. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, the humour dry, and the subject uncomfortable for some.