The Jammed

What a shockingly stunning film! It's still going around and around in my head and it's a struggle to know what to write.

It's always a shock to discover that films like these are based on real events, I like to think that people are better than that. But it's a well written, superbly acted, thrilling ride that doesn't sugar coat any of the issues. Emma Lung, Veronica Sywak, Saskia Burmeister and Sun Park give emotional, brave performances. Not for the faint-hearted, but so compelling and important. Just don't hold your breath for a happy ending.

Full credit to Dee McLachlan for a remarkably real and moving film experience.

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!

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.

I saw this movie with two girlfriends while on holiday in Avoca Beach. This was the only movie on offer at that time so we almost had to see it. Though I am maybe (some would say) to young (though I am mature for my age) to understand the full extent of the movie, but from what I do understand it was excellently made. It was moving and a real deep piece of work. The actors- though lesser known- were well cast and the writing went where it needed to go. The ending is by no means happy or satisfactory in the sense of fairytale endings, but rather is the sad reality of the situation. I was silent for about half an hour after because I needed to think and let the movie sink in. I recommend it for people who enjoy moving pieces about real issues.