English Movie 2009 Fatal Promises
Cast And Crew
Staring;;Emma Thompson,Gloria Steinem
Genre(s): Documentary
Written by: Katharina Rohrer
Directed by: Katharina Rohrer
Release Date:Theatrical: September 18, 2009
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: USA Austria
Reviews
An in-depth look at the scourge of human trafficking through the personal stories of victims of trafficking, interviews with politicians, non-governmental organizations and activists.
"Fatal Promises," a documentary about human trafficking, seems to start from the premise that no one has ever heard of this vexing international problem before. So it tries to cover every base: sex slavery, forced manual labor, political foot-dragging, celebrity activism, frustration among nongovernmental agencies dealing with the issue.
As a result it lacks focus and adds little to the awareness of the subject that even a casual follower of the news has already acquired.
The film, directed by Kat Rohrer, uses a hopscotching approach that muddies rather than clarifies. At its core are the personal stories of several trafficking victims — stories that certainly deserve to be heard — but it cuts away from these to drop in on legislative debates, a United Nations conference, a speech by the actress Emma Thompson and more.
The filmmakers seem to be trying to slam various governments (especially the New York Legislature) for preferring vague platitudes to legislation that would make it easier to prosecute traffickers. But "Fatal Promises" is guilty of its own sort of vagueness, saying that nongovernmental agencies need more support without detailing how they intend to address the issue.
Statistics cited in the film say 800,000 people are trafficked each year (including 17,500 in the United States), most into forced prostitution, domestic service or agricultural work. As Gloria Steinem, the other famous name besides Ms. Thompson to turn up here, notes, it is a modern-day version of slavery but more widespread than slavery was because today transportation is easier, and the disparity between rich and poor countries is greater.
Trafficking seems particularly to have taken hold in the countries of the former Soviet Union, the film says, and the victims who tell their stories are from this region. Several are women who were forced into the sex trade, a subject that has already received a fair amount of attention (including its own mini-series, "Human Trafficking," on Lifetime in 2005).
But the filmmakers, in the documentary’s most illuminating segments, also talk to two men who bought into false promises and found themselves working on an illegal crabbing boat under wretched conditions. At one point they were reduced to eating their own bait. It’s a reminder that sexual slavery is only one part of this ugly phenomenon.
FATAL PROMISES
Opens on Wednesday in Manhattan.
Fatal Promises opened on Wednesday in New York City to two mixed reviews. • Neil Genzlinger wrote in the New York Times, "...tries to cover every base: sex slavery, forced manual labor, political foot-dragging, celebrity activism, frustration among nongovernmental agencies dealing with the issue.... lacks focus and adds little to the awareness of the subject that even a casual follower of the news has already acquired." • And Andrew Schenker wrote in the Village Voice, "...it's the personal stories—a woman forced to prove that she's menstruating to avoid rape, the starved captives of a crab boat reduced to eating their rotten bait—that have the most impact, humanizing the sickening end-product of capitalist failure."
Fa.tal: adj- Causing ruin or destruction;disastrous / Prom.ise(s): noun- something that effects an express assurance; indication of what may be expected. Every year, an estimated 800,000 persons are trafficked across international borders and forced into sexual or labour servitude. Estimates are that as many as 32 million people yearly are held in slave-like conditions for sexual or labour exploitation, 2.4 million of these individuals as a result of being trafficked. They are promised good jobs or pay, but end up forced into prostitution or working in servitude for no pay. They are emotionally and physically brutalized, starved, forced to work extremely long hours, stripped of their passports and locked away, and eventually discarded or worse, murdered. Eight years after the United Nations established the Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, "Fatal Promises" offers a comprehensive look at the realities on the ground versus the rhetoric of today's political efforts in combating human trafficking. While focusing on Ukraine as a country of origin and western European countries and the U.S. as countries of destination, "Fatal Promises" illuminates the magnitude of this global epidemic.
No comments:
Post a Comment