Review of Whores' Glory (2011) by T M — 18 Mar 2013

I would recommend this film to anyone interested in its subject matter. An observer (i.e. the film crew) is always going to influence the people and situations they are observing, but I felt Glawogger and his crew did a very good job staying behind the camera and giving their subjects space.

I don't understand the choice of title. The cinematography was really well done, so I guess I could say these women's glory is their depiction here on the screen. Which would be somewhat apt because then these women's glory would only have existed detached from themselves, or someone else's reflection of them and that they never get to experience it for themselves.

There is an explicit sex scene towards the end that some people perceived as particularly exploitative or unnecessary. I was indeed surprised by it. But in filming that scene I don't feel anyone involved was exploited any more than they already were. I think the majority of viewers of this film will have seen sexually explicit videos before, and to not include such a scene when the opportunity presented itself would have been unnecessarily prudish as well as somewhat self-defeating of the film's intention.

I would have liked to see a segment on American and European prostitutes as well. In the three societies shown, the common denominator is the economic and spiritual disempowerment of women. But what was possibly the most interesting aspect was how the differing cultural attitudes of the men and women involved somewhat subtly affected each culture of prostitution. As an example, it seemed to me that there was less shame attached to the trade in Thailand than there was in Bangladesh and it seemed that the experience of the women in Bangladesh was made much the worse for that.