The movie's message is nicely summed up in its last quotation before the credits, which says something like "You can turn your face, but you can never say you didn't know about it".
This movie reveals such a shocking truth that makes you wonder how could we as a human race reach such a low point. The first minutes are painfully realistic in interpreting an abduction and the posterior purchase of a woman by a mafia guy. After that, you just can't take your eyes off the screen, even if that's what you desire the most.
The movie cleverly follows a reasoning line that start with the more precise, concrete issue of human trafficking, in particular related to Eastern European organized crime, and from that digs deeper and deeper, linking this particular and terribly awful issue with that of prostitution and Amsterdam's (in)famous women windows in the Red Light District, and one can't help but wondering: from whose twisted mind came the idea of making of this a tourist attraction?? When dealing with the complex issue of prostitution, the movie takes us to rural Thailand where 80 to 90 percent of girls are sold by their families to brothels, and at this point I think the movie falls at least temporarily in the Western Savior Complex, specially when a (white) interviewee says something of the kind: "On whose mind is it ethical to give up their daughter to this kind of life, just for some money?". And the question remains unanswered, floating around, with no effort whatsoever of trying to answer it, of interviewing a local, of trying to see the problem from the locals' perspective instead of that of a Western who landed on this exotic land to solve the problem you guys have.
But anyways, that's just a somewhat minor detail. In general the movie is well-centered, and after dealing with the Thai problem, the movie goes back to Las Vegas and interviews American prostitutes. Here the authors dig even deeper and link the issue of prostitution with that of child abuse. And the circle closes itself. What started as the most horrific face of capitalism and greed, is now seen through the lens of a patriarchal society that objectifies women and thinks they are there for men to masturbate inside them, as a Swedish politician says in the movie. And you realize that this problem is the worst face of both capitalism and patriarchy, and you realize how intertwined these two systems of oppression are.
So this movie could have finished as a chant against both capitalism and patriarchy. Instead, the authors decided to fill the last 15-20 minutes with bits of interviews in which the interviewees ALL cry, with a pathetic piano music on the background, while EVERY SINGLE ONE of them says that what made them carry on forward was faith, and God. And then you realize you have just watched a religious movie, made by religious people, with somewhat bizarre testimonies of prostitutes leaving their job because of an encounter with Jesus. And I mean, it's good that religion gets close to people's problems; but the thing with offering faith as the way out is that it rules out solutions of this world such as grouped resistance and government action.
So the end was quite disappointing. But that doesn't mean the rest of the movie is highly recommendable
This movie reveals such a shocking truth that makes you wonder how could we as a human race reach such a low point. The first minutes are painfully realistic in interpreting an abduction and the posterior purchase of a woman by a mafia guy. After that, you just can't take your eyes off the screen, even if that's what you desire the most.
The movie cleverly follows a reasoning line that start with the more precise, concrete issue of human trafficking, in particular related to Eastern European organized crime, and from that digs deeper and deeper, linking this particular and terribly awful issue with that of prostitution and Amsterdam's (in)famous women windows in the Red Light District, and one can't help but wondering: from whose twisted mind came the idea of making of this a tourist attraction?? When dealing with the complex issue of prostitution, the movie takes us to rural Thailand where 80 to 90 percent of girls are sold by their families to brothels, and at this point I think the movie falls at least temporarily in the Western Savior Complex, specially when a (white) interviewee says something of the kind: "On whose mind is it ethical to give up their daughter to this kind of life, just for some money?". And the question remains unanswered, floating around, with no effort whatsoever of trying to answer it, of interviewing a local, of trying to see the problem from the locals' perspective instead of that of a Western who landed on this exotic land to solve the problem you guys have.
But anyways, that's just a somewhat minor detail. In general the movie is well-centered, and after dealing with the Thai problem, the movie goes back to Las Vegas and interviews American prostitutes. Here the authors dig even deeper and link the issue of prostitution with that of child abuse. And the circle closes itself. What started as the most horrific face of capitalism and greed, is now seen through the lens of a patriarchal society that objectifies women and thinks they are there for men to masturbate inside them, as a Swedish politician says in the movie. And you realize that this problem is the worst face of both capitalism and patriarchy, and you realize how intertwined these two systems of oppression are.
So this movie could have finished as a chant against both capitalism and patriarchy. Instead, the authors decided to fill the last 15-20 minutes with bits of interviews in which the interviewees ALL cry, with a pathetic piano music on the background, while EVERY SINGLE ONE of them says that what made them carry on forward was faith, and God. And then you realize you have just watched a religious movie, made by religious people, with somewhat bizarre testimonies of prostitutes leaving their job because of an encounter with Jesus. And I mean, it's good that religion gets close to people's problems; but the thing with offering faith as the way out is that it rules out solutions of this world such as grouped resistance and government action.
So the end was quite disappointing. But that doesn't mean the rest of the movie is highly recommendable
