EXCLUSIVE: Brit actress Nadia Parkes, known for BBC drama Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story and Netflix’s The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself, has been set to star in an untitled UK indie feature about a stripper and dominatrix.

The film heralds from co-writers and co-directors Sophie Cohen and Michael Lindsay and is produced by 16oz Films in association with House of Vixens. It currently has a working title of The Ketamine Detective. Filming is due to begin in London later this month, with additional casting being finalized.

Cohen is a filmmaker, writer, podcaster, stripper and dominatrix with more than two decades inside the sex industry, where she remains active. She is also the creator of Strippers in the Attic, which has attracted more than 250,000 downloads for its candid conversations with strippers, sex workers and others connected to the industry.

Parkes will play Jess, “a stripper and dominatrix whose life starts to come apart after a client turns up dead and leaves her with a mysterious metal puzzle box”.

The synopsis reads: “Jess is not having a good week. She’s been attacked, her puritanical sister has landed from America, and murder is starting to feel less like a paranoid theory than a reasonable working assumption. Somewhere between anal billionaires, sex-work chat groups, allotments and mushroom stalls, Jess trips into a raucous, weed-hazed conspiracy chase through the half-hidden arteries of London”.

According to producers, the contemporary London-set film “blends dark comedy, stoner noir and chosen-family chaos.” The production is also set to include sex performers, workers and community members in front of and behind the camera.

Parkes said: “Roles like this don’t come along very often. Jess is not there to be saved, punished, tidied up or understood in one easy way. She gets to be ridiculous, clever, difficult, loving and completely central to a story that is genuinely fun, strange and alive. I’m also excited to be part of a project that wants to show sex work with honesty, humour and care, from people who really know this world. This role is a gift.”

Cohen and Lindsay commented: “We wanted to make something funny, messy, alive and deeply character-driven. We weren’t interested in treating sex workers as symbols, victims or scandals. This is a film about community, friendship and survival, made with people who know this world from the inside.”