THE GIRL FROM THE BROTHEL (TALKING TO THE TREES)
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: A woman rescues three young girls from a
Cambodian brothel. Police and thugs chase her and the
girls across country as she tries to find each child's
home and return them there. Along the way the film is
decorated with equal parts lush photography of Cambodia
and examination of the ugly problem of child prostitution
destroying the lives of tens of millions of children
worldwide. The film is directed by Ilaria Borrelli and
written by Borrelli and Guido Freddi. Freddi also
produced and contributed the original music. The basic
plot is an overly familiar one, but the film makes up for
it by acquainting the viewer with the enormous issue of
child forced prostitution. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
The alternate title of this film, more subtle though less
informative, was TALKING TO THE TREES. And the film begins with an eleven-year-old Cambodian girl, Srey (played by Seta Monyroth)
talking to trees. Before we know it men with chainsaws are cutting
down the trees. The men have bought the forest that the little
girl considers home and they are cutting it down, (unintentionally)
killing Srey's grandmother along the way. Another stranger offers
to help Srey.
After the titles we flash to the French photographer Mia (director
Ilaria Borrelli) who has flown to Cambodia to be with her husband.
She just misses him at his hotel and tries to catch up with him in
the street, but finds he has gone to a very shabby brothel. Mia
sees her husband with Srey and is stunned and outraged. Mia
decides to try to rescue the girl her husband was using. She tries
to escape the brothel with Srey. And the same establishment that
turns a blind eye to the inhumanity of the sex trade considers Mia
a kidnapper. The police cooperate with heavies from the brothel to
chase after Mia and Srey.
The film's cause--stopping sexual slavery and human trafficking in
children--is a very serious one. As far as the chase plot the
trafficking is an interchangeable MacGuffin. Mia could be running
from drug dealers and we could have substantially the same action
film. The film's originality and value are largely what we see in
the margins and around the main body of the story.
The film at once makes Cambodia look like a place you would want to
visit and at the same time one you would not. In spite of terrific
colorful scenery, this is not a film that is going to do much
positive for the Cambodia tourism industry.
The film is mostly in English, but with actors' accents thick
enough to get in the viewers' way. There are some scenes that are
not staged well. In one scene fugitives are being chased are
crossing a wide flat field of several acres. The people chasing
them catch them in the middle of the flat, open field. It gives
the viewer a jolt, but it hardly seems possible to sneak up on
someone who is so far out in the open.
Few people are aware of the enormity of the child sex traffic.
With over 40,000,000 children on the world sex market there are
more slaves today than at any time in world history. 35% of
Cambodia's 15,000 prostitutes are children under the age of 16. It
is not uncommon for parents in poverty to sell their own children
into the brothels in Cambodia. Borrelli could have made a hard-
hitting documentary about the problem, but probably fewer people
would want to see it than would if the film offered the
entertainment of a chase story and uses that to present some of the
hard facts. This story is a nightmarish view of the life of the
impoverished and powerless in Cambodia. Hopefully this film will
be an awakening, even if it is a rude one.
I give THE GIRL FROM THE BROTHEL a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or
7/10. It will be available on DVD and ON DEMAND beginning April
25.
Film Credits:
<
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1930499/combined>
What others are saying: <
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_girl_from_the_brothel>
Trailer: <
https://vimeo.com/210535243>
Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 2017 Mark R. Leeper
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