Irina Palm

This Belgian film is over a year old but is just now looking for release in the United States. This was a popular selection at the Sedona Film Festival, although the delightful artistic director chided us for staying up so late just to see this titillating film!

Marianne Faithfull is a widowed grandmother, driven to desperation by the illness of her much-loved grandson. She, her newly unemployed son and frantic daughter-in-law have borrowed, hocked and sold everything they can get their hands on, only to learn that a very expensive medical procedure has just become available "overseas." If they can pay for the transportation and housing, the boy might very well be saved.

Not only is she distracted by her family drama, the neighbor women aren't particularly nice to her during their frequent kaffé klatches. They tend to be snoopy, while she has a very strong sense of privacy.

Finally, at her tether's end, she takes a job as a hostess in a local sex club. Her initiation into the nitty gritty of the services provided there, is actually funny as hell and her reactions are priceless. We watch as she gains new confidence and a different outlook, and she discovers that she isn't quite as unappealing as she had been led to believe.

Her suspicious son follows her to work one day and therein lies the tale...