Film Threats
By Michael Talbot-Haynes
February 21, 2023
Evil doesn’t just come to visit in Bordello, the intriguing Canadian western directed by Carlo Liconti. Written by Daniel Matmor, the film opens with Enoch (Kris Holden-Ried), who runs a country whorehouse in a weathered mansion in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico in 1889. He spends his days digging for gold on the property while Ada (Heidi von Palleske), Tara (Camille Stopps), Precious (Jessica Danecker), Martha (Hailey Summer), and Esi (Nisa Gunduz) perform sex acts for money. Also running around the place is 7-year-old Angel (Brooklyn Popp), the offspring of a sex worker who died giving birth to her.
Enoch dreams of making enough money to close shop and travel to Alaska to search for gold. However, business has been dwindling, and the bloodthirsty Sheriff Amshell (Frank J. Zupancic) is demanding more money. This small-time pimp is paid a visit by a big-time one named Madame Gabi (Diana Goldman). Madame Gabi is making her way back to Las Cruces after capturing a runaway sex worker, Mary (Taylor Thorne). She takes an interest in little Angel, saying that in five years, she will be grown enough to be put to work. Madame Gabi offers Enoch nearly enough money to get him to Alaska. He reluctantly declines the offer.
The sex workers question Mary about what Madame Gabi is capable of. The badly beaten Mary informs them that Madame Gabi runs a secret house outside of town limits where little girls Angel’s age are sold for sex. When Martha spies Enoch sending a letter off to Madame Gabi, she and the rest of the women go on high alert. The sex workers circle their wagons around little Angel, determined to ensure she isn’t sold into child prostitution.
In John Ford’s Stagecoach, a sex
worker wonders out loud why she is being run out of town. An alcoholic informs
her it is because she is one of the dregs of society. He then invites her to
join him and become a glorified dreg. In untamed lands, the rules of society
are inverted. The outlaws, sex workers, and drunks are mainstream, while the
outsiders are so-called respectable folk from back east. This societal
inversion grew more pronounced with the spaghetti westerns and more graphic
with the R-rated cowboy movies later on. By making the sex workers the heroes
and law and order the villains, Bordello keeps the upside-down social rules of
the western intact. As women on the frontier only had the employment options of
being a teacher or a sex worker, it also makes sense that more genre offerings
should have w****s as the protagonists.
A 2023 Italian, U.S.A., Australian,
Canadian film co-production [Leader Media ()]
Producers: Stephen Chung, Bo Ko,
Robert Tersigni, Cristian de la Rosa, Carlo Liconti
Director: Carlo Liconti
Story: Daniel Matmor
Scrrenplay: Daniel Matmor
Cinematography: Ludek Bogner [color]
Music: Nicholas Schnier
Running time: 99 minutes
Cast:
Enoch - Kris Holden-Ried (Kristen
Holden-Ried)
Esi - Nisa Gunduz
Ada - Heidi von Palleske
Tara - Camille Stopps
Precious - Jessica Danecker
Angel - Brooklyn Popp
Sheriff Amshell - Frank J. Zupancic
Xavier - Diego Fuentes
Samuel - Curtis Morgan
Ranchero - Gerry Mendicino
Madame Gabi - Diana Goldman
Eliezer - Jamie Elman
Jeremiah Shagman - Chase Lawless
Elija Shagman - Jamie Maczko
Mary - Taylor Thorne
John the Baptist - Michal Grzejszczak
Trappers - Paul Thompson, Trevor
Ketcheson, Steven Burley
Sporting man - Daniel Matmor
Winnie - Samantha Brown
Daniel - Eli Batalion
Hezer Khaia - Santino Buda
Townspeople - Gord Apos, Angela
Kharuk, Irnia Shearson
Mexican farmer - Ron Soffers
Stunt coordinator: Rick Parker
1889 in New Mexico five workers at an Old West brothel
conspire to murder their pimp, Enoch, in order to protect a seven-year-old
girl. The situation escalates when Madame Gabi, a wealthy brothel owner,
arrives and offers to buy the child for a life of prostitution, forcing the
women to take drastic.
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