Doing Money

Based on a true story, this story is shocking in modern day UK/Eire.

A brilliant performance by all the cast, telling the story of a young Romanian woman (Ana) kidnapped from the streets of London in broad daylight and forced into the sex trade.

Ana is a young Romanian woman living in London when she is abducted by a couple and taken to Ireland to work as a prostitute. They move from city to city to stay ahead of the Irish vice squad.

Making the story even more disgusting is the fact that a woman runs the escort service along with two male Romanian pimps.

They inform Ana that they know where her mother lives and threaten her with harm unless she follows their orders.

She services dozens of customers in order to pay back her purchase price of thirty thousand euros.

The end credits claim that new anti-trafficking laws were passed as a result of Ana's testimony against her captors. Although well made with some lovely scenes of Ireland, Doing Money is yet another dark look at the human race.

We all hear stories about human sex trafficking - but it doesn't always feel real. This film brings the reality to home. And it's necessarily grim viewing. Ana is a happy Romanian immigrant working in a low wage job in London. She is kidnapped and taken to Ireland and had to pay off her 'purchase price' by 'doing money' - a eumpamism for having sex with willing paying customers. It's horrible - but it demonstrates that slavery is alive and well and man (or in this case woman) can go to extreme and inhuman lengths for personal profit. Doesn't make you feel good about the world, nor should it. But it needs to be watched.

I watched this tonight. I've cried loads. It's awful what human beings do to each other. This was very well made and I'm still shaken up by her story.

You would have hoped it was not possible for a young woman to be kidnapped on the streets of London and forced into slavery under threat to her family; but sadly this does happen, and 'Doing Money' dramatises one such real life story. It's an utterly horrific tale; the film is direct and un-fancy, but the sense that what we see is something close to pure evil is never far away, and the psychological hold that the perpetrators have over their victims is convincingly portrayed. In this case, the the pimps went to jail; but even to someone like me who normally favours a liberal approach to sentencing, their three-year sentences seem wholly inadequate. In telling this story, 'Doing Money' is truly shocking, but and essential viewing.