Friday, September 25, 2009

slaves


In one of her posts, ecila recommends the documentary "Sex Slaves". I like how it portrays the fact that indeed a large amount of women (10%) actually get into this business absolutely unsuspecting of what awaits them. Because of a lack of education and future prospects, many girls from poor countries fall in the traps that hide beneath promicing ads for work abroad (especially since there are also many successful stories of hard-working people sending money home from abroad). And it gets worse: some girls are sold by their own aquaintances. Once sold and put to work, they are kept in inhumane conditions, and treated like meat. This documentary shows that it's never a question of choice. Not even after they start working. They simply cannot run away. Many are kept under lock and key, under constant surveillance. The pimps maintain control over them making use of psychological terror, threatening them and their families. The police is most of the times involved in the business. Many girls are made to believe that by working, they can buy their freedom back: they work for free, believeing that this way they can pay back the money they were bought for. And it gets worse: because, by a certain time they will have debts, or because some crash under the influence of terror, they "decide" to stay. Who is to blame? The law, the media, the police, the society. It's brutal, inhumane, unforgivable and it's happening as we speak.



I want to take this opportunity and recommend two movies: "Trade" and Lukas Moodysson's "Lilja 4-ever". While "Trade" manages to portray some of the above mentioned issues in an appropriate way, "Lilja 4-ever" is a true masterpiece, one that makes you forget that you watch a movie, one that makes your heart ache: the feeling of being lost, as well as the impact of intimidation and terror on the psyche is as real as one can be. "Lilja 4-ever" is an absolute must!

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