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BERLINALE 2007 Competition

There’s something about Irina

by 

In official competition at the Berlinale, Sam Garbarski’s Irina Palm [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sam Garbarski
interview: Sébastien Delloye
film profile
]
was met with thunderous applause after its press screening yesterday.

The delicate and highly entertaining film is currently the favourite of festival journalists and surely among the most qualified titles for one of the event’s top prizes.

Mixing drama and comedy, the undoubtedly unusual story succeeds in avoiding the dangers of pathos thanks also to the strong performances of a cast led by the wonderful Marianne Faithfull.

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A widow in her mid-50s, Maggie lives a peaceful existence in a small, conservative London suburb. When her seriously ill grandson needs money for an urgent transplant, she heads to London in search of work. After a difficult start, Maggie lands a job in a sex club where she ultimately becomes a star: Irina Palm, “the best hand in Soho”.

“The film was originally written in French”, said the director, “and was conceived for a very low budget. We were going to shoot it in Brussels but couldn’t find a producer, people were afraid of the subject. Then Sébastien [Delloye, the producer] suggested I do in the UK, and we found a co-producer in Rotterdam. Since the screenplay was completely rewritten in English we could no longer shoot in Brussels. So we went to London, and the result is what you see”.

Irina Palm is a European co-production between Belgium (Entre Chien et Loup), Germany (Pallas Film), Luxembourg (Samsa Film), the UK (Ipso Facto Films) and France (Liaison Cinématographique).

International sales are being handled by France’s Pyramide International.

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(Translated from Italian)

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