The Jammed

I saw this film 2 nights ago at the Sydney Film Festival and I am still thinking about the issues that were tackled. The film was amazing and an all-round brilliant drama. Honestly, I couldn't stop the tears rolling down my face for at least 1 hour after the film ended.

The script did not contain lengthy dialogue, but this was a positive. It was not too fast, and not too slow - it was the right speed in order to allow the audience to empathise with the characters. The acting was quite good but I think what made the film was the cinematography and the music that fit the message so well.

I definitely recommend checking this film out - it is definitely gripping and very 'in your face'...but worth it!

A stripped back film with no thrills, but story driven. A reality check on human trading and those who risk intervening.

Hard to know this is based on true events. A horrifying reality.

In this low budget picture, shot on HD, a 20 something Melbourne insurance worker becomes involved in the search for a victim of the sex slave racket. It's not really a thriller or a social document. Its dramatic focus is split between the prostitute/prisoners and the insurance worker, so the viewer tends to become attached and then detached. I think I was supposed to care about the insurance worker's personal life, which I was, a bit, but not that much. More importantly, I wanted to get to know the prostitute girls better as people, but there didn't seem to be time. Saskia Burmeister and Sun Park are excellent as two of the enslaved girls. Emma Lung is much less convincing. The music is dull, and includes that modern penchant for angelic choirs underscoring hideous physical abuse. Why? And what is this film actually about? The sex slaves? The insurance agent? The iniquity of the trafficking itself? Another couple of drafts of the script would maybe have sharpened up the focus. Nevertheless, it's not bad little picture.

Low budget movie, yes it is, almost nonexistent in the couple of years that followed it's making. Sex slave films are a dime a dozen these days. So many of em' tackle the subject, even more so in the last couple of years, where we'd had some that mirror others. The vibe I picked up off The Jammed, a movie that really does try, was a real struggle in getting it made, where the low budged aura here is painfully patent. There are some painfully heartbreaking sad scenes and some intoxicating and scary moments, in a well made and quite dramatic film. The two best performances here, is that of Emma Lung, as the main slave who just makes us feel so much compassion for her wronged, throw in the two hard basket, predicament. The cards are really stacked against this poor lass. Her agony, and her emotions like sadness, shock, are so heartbreaking and convincingly real, it's truly unsettling, some moments pretty hard to bare, thanks to her great acting, where I was encapsulated by her performance. The other excellent performance lies in Saskia Burmeister who plays the rebellious, Russian immigrant and wild pro, just what the film calls for. She's darn bloody sexy too, scoring most of the clients. Like Pulp Fiction, and other type films, the film starts at the end with Lung, who's just gone through so much hell, now in customs, after earlier in the story of the film, being saved by a social worker. Here, her savior seems to no avail, when you see what Lung goes through in the interrogation which to be honest, made me sickeningly angry. The social worked played by an actress that much resembles Belinda Mcclory from Redball, is implored by an Asian woman to track down her daughter, the other pro in the new trio who are being transported down to Melbourne. The pimps whatever, are as despicable as we imagined, which it was good to see the main one towards the end of the film, take a knifing. One of the younger acquaintances actually has a heart, and a soft spot for the more introverted pro, the daughter of the searching mother. The clients in this too, are not all made out to be bastards, either. The Jammed is a quite a compelling drama, worth a look, yes but is more fittingly suited to more discreet cinema, as it has more straight to video appeal. The film, about an all too common trade, makes for an effective drama though, where for Lung, it's an all too real painfully revolving door.

The Jammed has created much controversy here in Melbourne, Australia - where it was shot.

For some bizarre reason it was rejected by the Melbourne Int'l Film Festival (MIFF) organisers this year - very strange since they brag they promote and support the Australian Film Industry.

It has been given a VERY LIMITED cinema release - 10 days in one cinema only.

It has not been entered in the 2007 AFI awards (probably because the makers have to pay a $1000 entry fee or because of deadline issues...).

Some film critics have labelled it a dog and others are waxing lyrical on it as being the best Australian film of 2007.

I saw it today in a sold out session and although sitting in row 2 - i found it to be a very well made and acted film. Not a masterpiece but still worth seeing.

Considering I sat through some questionable films at the recent MIFF and sure to sit through a few duds at the AFI festival starting this weekend - I am surprised a film of this quality - and examining a very important topic - has been treated so poorly here in Melbourne.