The Receptionist
classified 18 PSPlease note: This was screened in July 2018
Desperate times call for desperate measures in writer/director Jenny Lu's exploration of immigrant workers in London's dark sex industry.
Unable to find a job, Tina (Teresa Daley), a Taiwanese graduate living in London, starts working as a receptionist in a "massage parlour" run by the ruthless Lily. The escorts working for her, Sasa and Mei, need money for very different reasons but are equally committed to their jobs (and the wages it comes with). As Tina comes to know the women in this very dysfunctional family, where sex lies at the heart of everything, she begins to understand how money makes the world go round and asks herself: is it worth all the pain?
Authentic and slyly subversive at times, this is a great look at broken migrant dreams.