Irina Palm

Irina Palm (2007) is a British-Belgian drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Sam Garbarski and led by Marianne Faithfull in a performance that carries the whole film on quiet stubbornness.

Maggie is a retiring widow in her fifties, living alone in a London suburb. Her grandson is dangerously ill and the treatment costs more than she has. She takes the train to Soho, walks into a sex club, and gets a job — under the name Irina Palm. She tells no one. The money comes in. And so does something she hadn't expected: a sense of purpose. Miki Manojlović plays the club owner who starts out exploiting her and ends up something harder to categorise.

Faithfull rarely raises her voice. The whole film runs on restraint — there are no big speeches, no breakdown scenes, just a woman who made a decision and sees it through. Garbarski keeps the tone dry and the empathy steady. For a story pitched this close to provocation, it is remarkably un-sensational. Stream Irina Palm (2007) online on iFILM.