Lilet Never Happened

The plot of this movie is about child prostitution in the Philippines. I'm sure when this movie is advertised it was advertised as being about the crusade to end child prostitution.

But after watching the movie.. I am moved to say something that will not necessarily endear me to other people. In fact, most of my friends would even hate me for it. So here it is: I do not care about child prostitution. It literally does not bother me that underage girls in poverty stricken parts of the world are out there prostituting themselves for cash. It does not offend me that men want to sleep with very young innocent-looking girls. And finally, it does not even concern me that the practice is widely overlooked by law enforcement.

I must sound like a cold uncaring bastard. But really I'm not. I DO want it to stop. But I believe that solving the problem must happen in a different way. Try solving poverty first. Try creating better education. Try giving people a reason to cease their bad habits and better themselves. Try giving them hope for a future.

Do I claim to know how to do this? Not necessarily. But stepping in and arrogantly saying, "This is bad and we have to change it" is more often than not a pointless expression. It leads nowhere, it changes nothing. Very often our audacious fervor to save them does nothing more than insult them; lowering their very desperate attempts at survival to the level of a base evil. Then we presume to save them from it. The fact that people, even young people, are having sex does not bother me. What bothers me is that they are poor, uneducated, fearful and hungry, and desperately trying to make their lives meaningful in a world that offers them no guidance.

This movie did not seem to me to be about child prostitution at all. It seemed to be more about trying to make a child see that her future depends on her actions. How do you convince a child to walk a different path in life when everyone she knows, everyone she either loves, respects or hates, is on a path to poverty and pain? This was the real point of this film. Lilet's prostitution seemed like it was a fairly small part of the big picture.

The movie was very good. The acting and filming and music all came together pretty seamlessly. I just felt that the published plot lines and topics were rather misleading. What I found in this film was not a challenge to the practice of child prostitution, but rather a brilliant look at the life of a young lady who was trying to decide which path to walk to her future.

If we want to end child prostitution, we must show them the way, and walk it with them.

Something doesn't add up in Filipino society, on the one hand you have this seemingly righteous society, and on the other hand you have the street children, but what is happening behind the white-washed walls in this balanced society? A little girl is sold to men by her parents for sex to grown men, and the white men are buyers - those dirty tourists...

Lilet is hot property and is seen working as a bar girl and being pursued by a Dutch female social worker with high ideals to help her, but yet inside Lilet is screwed up and challenges everyone to look at themselves, especially in the shelter she teaches the other children the wrong words.

A policeman too shows his corrupt self by trying to rape Lilet.....

The only thing left out of this story is the priest, it's non-religious, but in Filipino society I wonder if the priests are also sinful?

Jacco Groen has created a film that addresses, point blank, the heartbreaking story of a small girl facing sexual exploitation. He rejects all the standard Hollywood cliché of portraying the children as helpless objects of our pity, to be rescued by a male hero like Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise does appear in this movie, but only as an image torn from a magazine. Lilet is on her own.

Sandy Talag is probably the most natural, dynamic, and beautiful child actor since Peter Bartholomew or recently, Dakota Fanning. Your heart aches for this fragile girl in this terrible, ugly environment. And yet Lilet has not an ounce of self pity. A real child in a broken, abusive environment has no time for tears. Children adapt quickly to any environment, and learn their own ways of surviving.

The entire cast and crew worked together in this indy film to show Lilet as someone who, at an early age, refuses to follow the adults And when you meet the adults in her life, you will understand. But Lilet cannot differentiate between her saviors and her captors, refusing even those who would help. No matter what, she is determined to make her own choices, even the wrong ones. And that spirit is one of the most inspiring things to capture on film this year.