Megan Griffiths' screenplay for this unrelentingly grim drama is based on the autobiography of Chong Kim, the young Korean-American teenager who experienced first hand this litany of horrors. Kidnapped by a well- organized gang and forced into a life of sexual slavery, we are horrified to see how brutally the girls are treated and how disposable they are when the gang decides their "shelf life" has expired. I was interested to note that the "Johns" are treated in a very neutral way. I guess boys will be boys....
We see:
- Jamie Chung ("Sucker Punch") is out late with a girlfriend despite her mother's strict orders. Her kidnapping is sudden, violent and final. We see that she is smart and determined: she never loses her will to survive.
- Beau Bridges ("The Descendants") is the good-ole-boy police officer who runs the slaves with an iron fist and a loaded gun. It always ups the ante when law enforcement is complicit.
- Matt O'Leary ("The Fat Kid Rules the World") is the coke-head lieutenant who handles the day-to-day drudgery of managing all those slaves.
- Naama Kates ("The 10 Commandments of Chloe") is the Russian whose "promotion" catches Eden's eye. If one young woman can get ahead, maybe it's possible for our gal, too.
Our heroine is called "
Eden" because that is the name of the trailer park where her parents live. If she disobeys, they will be killed. As time passes, she develops a flint-hard shell and watches her captors carefully, looking for weaknesses. We, in the 2012 Seattle International Film Festival audience, watch just as avidly! We understand the resilience of the human spirit and believe there MUST be a way out....
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