Prison's done. Love's complicated. And the chips are down.
Ben Malafide has been in prison for 20 years. His nerves are shot, his feelings shriveled. St. Tre, who runs an escort service and a strip club has taken him in. Ben feels he has nothing to offer her. She feels kinship as a fellow outsider, and loves him as a twin, a lost soul. But St. Tre has a weakness. She is a card player, and has amassed large gambling debts, mostly to Kenny Nordstrom who manages Schumacher’s gambling clubs in Northern California. Kenny is secretly in love with St. Tre but, afraid to show it, he keeps everything on a business level.
Acting
Weathered faces that speak volumes in silence.
Direction
Nilsson's handheld intimacy—like you're eavesdropping.
Director
Rob Nilsson
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Nilsson shot this in 9 days with non-professional actors from his Tenderloin workshop, blurring documentary and fiction.
Part of Nilsson's '9@Night' series exploring working-class San Francisco—rare American cinema that treats poverty as texture, not spectacle.
US
