The Receptionist follows Tina, a Taiwanese graduate searching for work in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. When her white, live-in boyfriend loses his job she takes the only position offered to her, as a receptionist at a massage parlour. Jenny Lu’s ensemble drama confronts the harshness of migrant experience, sex work and Western fetishization of Asian women while keeping its focus on the characters’ internal worlds and how they support each other amid persistent violence. The Receptionist is an intimate portrait of women objectified and ignored by the outside world who choose to make family among themselves.

This screening is followed by a Q&A with writer and director Jenny Lu, hosted by journalist and Critics Circle President Anna Smith.