IT IS not often that an elderly couple would make up their son's bed with satin sheets and spread rose petals in readiness for a visit by a sex worker.

But this is no ordinary birthday celebration for Mark, who has cerebral palsy and yearns for an intimate relationship. Mark is confined to a wheelchair and speaks via an electronic communication board but his eyes light up at the prospect of an overnight liaison with Rachel Wotton, a Sydney sex worker of 17 years.

The liberating, unexpectedly romantic encounter features in independent director Catherine Scott's latest documentary Scarlet Road, which is among the films vying for the $10,000 Foxtel Australian Documentary Prize at this year's Sydney Film Festival.

The full program will be announced today by the festival director, Clare Stewart,TOM CRUISE

The good deed: Rescued five people stranded in the Mediterranean There is no Mission: Impossible for Ethan Hunt or for Tom Cruise, for that matter. The actor has had a long history of coming to the aid of innocent bystanders, but one of the most notable incidents was in the Mediterranean in 1996, when he ordered the crew of his yacht to pick up five people in a drifting raft who had to abandon their own burning sailboat.