Last week, I was invited to the EUFF’s Blogger Movie Night which was held at the Spain Embassy and had the pleasure of watching Irina Palm from Luxembourg.
In this film, Marianne Faithfull starred as Maggie, a 50 year old grandmother who was desperate to find money to pay for her sick grandson’s surgery and decided to take up a job at nightclub which required her to masturbate men behind a wall with a hole.
Being someone from the older generation, she took up the job with much hesitation at first, and she did not tell her friends and family as she felt ashamed and feared their disapproval. However, she became so good at her job such that the boss decided to let her work under the pseudonym ‘Irina Palm’ where she could command a higher price. Subsequently, she found courage to tell her friends about her occupation and even told them that she was the best in this line in the area. With this newfound pride, she managed to confront her friend whom she knew had an affair with her dead husband, and it become apparent that Maggie thought that her friend’s affair with her own husband was more shameful than Maggie’s job.
Maggie’s son had a very close relationship with Maggie, and often stood on Maggie’s side when she had clashes with her daughter-in-law. It was clear that Maggie didn’t have a good relationship with her daughter-in-law. When Maggie gave a lump sum of 6000 to her son, her son feared that his mother did something silly or stupid for the money and followed her to her work place. After finding out about Maggie’s job, the son became enraged and felt ashamed that his mother had to work as a “whore”. Interestingly, it was the daughter-in-law who was more understanding and said that she felt really grateful to Maggie for what she was doing to help. The son subsequently accepted the situation and became thankful and appreciative of his mother.
Overall, the film was really interesting to watch and I really enjoyed it. I believe that the other films will be just as nice to watch.
This year, the EUFF will feature 17 critically acclaimed and award-winning films from some of the EU’s member countries and will run from 6 May to 16 May. Although Broken Embraces (6 May) from Spain is only open to invited guests, the show will be released in local cinemas on 13 May. Some other highlights of the festival include titles such as The Father of my Children (France), Unmade Beds (UK) and The Secret of Kells (Ireland). Tickets are available from Golden Village at $10 each.
website: http://euff.sg/