Storyline
An examination of the lives, needs, troubles and
hopes of prostitutes in Thailand, Bangladesh and
Mexico.
Whores Glory is a 2011 documentary by Michael
Glawogger. It shows the life of prostitutes from
three different cultures: Thailand, Bangladesh
and Mexico.
WHORES'' GLORY is a cinematic triptych on
prostitution: three countries, three languages,
three religions. In Thailand, women wait for
clients behind glass panes, staring at
reflections of themselves. In Bangladesh, men go
to a ghetto of love to satisfy their unfulfilled
desires on indentured girls. And in Mexico,
women pray to a female death to avoid facing
their own reality.
In worlds where the most intimate act has become
a commodity, these women have physically and
emotionally experienced everything that can
happen between a man and a woman. For this they
have always received money, but it has not made
their lives rich in anything but stories.
Plot
The film is divided into three locally defined
episodes: Bangkok (Thailand), Faridpur
(Bangladesh) and Reynosa (Mexico).
The first part deals with the everyday work of
prostitutes in Bangkok, in a brothel called the
Fish Tank. The prostitutes sit in a brightly lit
glass room and are chosen by clients by the
number used to identify them.
The second part is about a vast brothel called
the City of Joy, in the town of Faridpur,
Bangladesh. There, 600 to 800 women work in a
confined space. In one scene, a madame buying a
prostitute from another madame haggles over the
price of the girl.
The third part takes place in the city of
Reynosa, near the Texas border. There it is
common, as in other Mexican cities, to designate
the legal areas for prostitution as zonas de
tolerancia (tolerance zones). The entrance to
the Zona is secured with barriers and is
constantly monitored by the police.
