Do the means justify the ends or do the ends justify the means?  Sam Garbarksi’s new overly serious film IRINA PALM attempts to answer these questions in his film on ends and means.  A woman takes a job at an Oxford Street sex club giving hand jobs through a glory hole in order to earn 6000 quid to pay for her terminally grandson’s operation.

The story concerns Maggie (Marianne Faithfull).  Her grandson needs an operation in Australia but neither her, her son, Tom (Kevin Bishop) nor his wife, Sarah (Siobhan Hewlett) has any funds.  The first half of the film traces Maggie’s education in her new trade and the second, the acceptance or non-acceptance of family and friends when she is discovered.  The title is so called as Maggie gets so good at it that her boss, Miki (Miki Manojlovic) offers her the stage name of Irina.  (No need to elaborate where the word palm comes from.)

Slow paced and predictable though the film may be, IRINA PALM still works – thanks a great deal to Faithfull’s motherly performance.  Her doe-eyed looks, innocence and stout appearance aids wonders.  Garbarski injects some humour into his film while keeping the seriousness of the film on track.  The only little surprise Garbarski adds on in the form of a little romance works too.  A nice pleasure too is watching 70’s star Jenny Agutter (THE RAILWAY CHILDREN and LOGAN’S RUN) in the role of Maggie’s so-called friend, Jane.