TRAPPED is the perfect example of what independent filmmaking is all about.
Great story line, well developed characters, and a twisting plot that drives the film forward. Robert Mann, (writer-director-star) has produced an insightful drama that embraces faulty human frailties, (greed, lust, and love), exposing these painful illusions of mankind.
The title, TRAPPED, encompasses not only the characters, but also the audience. By shooting the film in basically one location, Mr. Mann allows the audience to experience what his characters are feeling, claustrophobic and imprisoned. This helps us (audience) feel empathy and identify with its characters, especially Troy, the films' anti-hero.
The film begins with an ex-con, (Troy), holding the judge who sent him to prison, hostage in his own home. But that's just the beginning. When Troy arrives to rob the judge of a large bank withdraw, he catches him raping a prostitute, (Paradise), the charge Troy was innocently convicted of...so he says.
But the theme is much deeper than the obvious "trappings." Not only is the judge TRAPPED in his home, but also in a private bizarre sexual existence. The beautiful Paridise, played to perfection by Teresa Gilmore, too is TRAPPED, in a life that she has "given up a long time ago." Then there's Troy, fighting the conflicting truths of his moral character, while trying to survive in a tainted judicial system.
As the story unfolds, other characters are introduced, each TRAPPED in their own self inflicted existence. Rene Featherstone gives a brilliant performance as the judges emotionally unstable wife, Athena.
TRAPPED is the kind of film that leaves you emotionally stunned and thinking. And thats what interesting filmmaking should do.
