Maggie (Marianne Faithfull) is a British widow in her mid-fifties. Maggie’s grandson is dying of a rare disease and the only possible cure is in Australia. His family already spent all they had to buy medicines and now they can’t afford the travel. Maggie, driven by that love any grandparents have, is determined to help with the money but she’s old and nobody wants to give her a job or a loan. When she finds a notice for “hostess wanted” on a door in Soho she unintentionally enters a night club. The boss (Miki Manojlovic), amused by such an uncommon applicant, frankly explains he’s looking for a whore and offers Maggie to make good money working behind a glory hole.

Usually this would be the plot for one of those boring movies where everything goes wrong and hopeless people keep on banging their heads on the wall with no end. But for Sam Garbarski this surreal scenario becomes the starting point for many comic sequences, touchy and funny at the same time. With great determination Maggie becomes Irina Palm, the best hand job dispenser in London and the real fun arrives when she can’t keep the secret anymore. Things are never simple as we think, so we and Maggie end up sympathizing more with Miki the boss or Luisa the glory hole worker, rather than Maggie’s hypocritical neighborhoods.

A special mention for Miki Manojlovic whose performance in this movie is a masterpiece.

Irina Palm
BE/LX/UK/DE/FR 2007, by Sam Garbarski, Drama
IMDB 762110