Prostitute is a 1980 British drama film, the directorial debut of Tony Garnett who also wrote and produced the film.
The film tells the story of Sandra (Eleanor Forsythe), "an ambitious working girl who moves to London."
Contents
Plot
In Birmingham, several prostitutes know and look out for one another. One, Sandra, has a child, and ambitions to advance beyond just taking street pickups. Her acquaintance Rose, who lives with her mother (who may also have been a prostitute in her youth) and has multiple children, is arrested by the vice squad when she was otherwise walking home and not actively seeking clients. She is pressured into taking a guilty plea and is sentenced to three months in prison. Their mutual friend Louise, a social worker who shares a flat with Sandra, is upset by how the working-class women are harassed by police and are unaware of the rights they have under the law. She recruits Rose's mother to urge other local prostitutes to build a discussion group where they can eventually lobby to change the laws; Louise, friendly enough with Sandra that she takes her as a guest to a wedding, tries to enlist her as well, but Sandra seeks to find better paying sex work in London. Louise, in her research, meets Griff, a lecturer on penal reform, who takes an interest in her cause, but in attempting to summarize its significance, shows himself to have no real knowledge of sex workers' lives. Nonetheless, she is attracted to him, and invites him to stay the night with her, briefly meeting Sandra in the process.