The 50-year-old widow Maggie (Marianne Faithfull) desperately needs money for the cost of traveling to Australia for a special medical treatment of her beloved ill grandson Olly. After several unsuccessful attempts to get a job, she finds herself in the streets of Soho.
Her eye is caught by poster in the window of a shop called Sexy World: “Hostess wanted”. She enters, and Miki (Miki Manojlovic), the owner of the shop, explains her frankly that “hostess” is a euphemism for “whore”. The job he has for her is one for which age and being visually attractive is not important: a male customer inserts his penis in a hole in a wall (glory hole), and she, at the other side, gives a handjob (however, the film does not show any penis).
Her colleague Luisa shows her how to do it, and after the first hesitation she quickly develops the work skills. However, she keeps her work secret from friends and family, which leads to uncomfortable situations. After a while she tells some friends. They are quite interested and ask various details.
Under the pseudonym Irina Palm she gets more and more successful and gets paid well, 600 to 800 pounds a week. However, the health of her grandson deteriorates quickly, therefore she asks and gets an advance payment of 6000 pounds for 10 weeks of work.
She gives the money to her son Tom (Kevin Bishop) without telling how she got it. He follows her to find out and is furious when he learns what she does. He wants her to never go there again and says he will himself return the money and not go to Australia. However, his wife Sarah is thankful to Maggie for her sacrifice to save the boy. Tom and Maggie reconcile and Tom, Sarah, and Olly go to Australia.
Luisa is fired due to Maggie’s success. She is very angry at Maggie. A competitor of Miki’s offers Maggie a better job, as supervisor of prostitutes in a room with multiple glory holes. She would get 15% of their earnings. She hesitates but declines the offer, becoming a “madam” is a step too far for her. Maggie and Miki eventually fall in love with each other.
Production notes provided by Strand Releasing.
Irina Palm
Starring: Marianne Faithfull, Miki Manojlovic, Kevin Bishop, Siobhan Hewlett
Directed by: Sam Garbarski
Screenplay by: Sam Garbarski, Philippe Blasband
Release Date: March 28th, 2008
MPAA Rating: R for language, nudity, strong sexual content.
Studio: Strand Releasing
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $44,383 (0.4%)
Foreign: $10,456,054 (99.6%)
Total: $10,500,437 (Worldwide)