Produced by Dee Mclachlan, Sally Ayre-Smith

Cast: Emma Lung, Veronica Sywak, Saskia Burmeister, Sun Park, Amanda Ma, Andrew S. Gilbert, Alison Whyte, Debra Lawrence, Damien Richardson, Kate Atkinson, Todd MacDonald.

The Jammed is a powerful, beautifully shot film about sex trafficking in Australia. It became a project of award winning writer/director Dee McLachlan after she saw a buried news item about trafficked prostitutes. Deported after detention as illegal immigrants, their trafficker received a suspended sentence. The film doesn’t deal with this last iniquitous aspect of the true story on which the film is based. It does give a sickening picture of the human suffering and abuse involved in trafficking and the mixture of naivété and callous greed which allows it.

The three girls whose personal stories we glimpse through a looping flashback are Crystal (Emma Lung), Rubi (Sun Park) and Vanya (Saskia Burmeister). Lured to Australia on temporary visas under various false pretences in which traffickers exploit poverty and ignorance, the girls have a tarty vulnerability and the fragility of the displaced and abandoned. Crystal’s initial defiance has been subdued by brutal rape and we assume the others have met the same softening-up treatment. They are moved by car as submissive cargo, with only the fiery Vanya displaying a spiky resistance. Held prisoner in sleazy rooms with a debt of $50,000, they serve a procession of anonymous johns with silent resentment, only erupting into laughter, tears or sisterly affection when they are together.

Rubi’s mother Sunee (Amanda Ma) arrives at Melbourne airport in search of her daughter with only a postcard of a city landmark to identify where she might be being held against her will. She enlists the help, as first grudgingly given, of stranger Ashley Hudson (Veronica Sywak) and she in turn is aided by ex-boyfriend Tom (Todd MacDonald). In the harrowing mission to find Rubi and free her and the other girls, they encounter dead ends, violent opposition and greedy opportunism from the brothel keepers as well as inevitable tragedy.

The film’s images are stark with a lasting and sobering impact. Contrasts between Melbourne’s magnificent architecture and grubbier areas of town where the girls are held echo the feeling of their being hidden below the view of respectable society. The film touches lightly on a few points. A potentially explosive scene near the end has Ashley and Vanya intruding briefly at an up-market art exhibition held by the wife of brothel keeper Vic (Andrew S. Gilbert). Another filmmaker might have more fully dramatised this scene to expose to the elite art crowd the true source of the money that funds the gallery. Instead, Vanya’s provocative wantonness is simply laughed off in embarrassed bewilderment and indifference – in itself a significant comment. Similarly, the film could have given a fuller picture of how easily the perpetrators evade punishment. It keeps the focus on the victims, but it’s easy to miss that Crystal refuses to testify due to fear of reprisals on her family.

An unobtrusive musical score by Grant McLachlan adds to poignant moods and a fast pace while Peter Falk’s impressive cinematography makes the most of unusual angles and striking contrasts of light, form and colour. Outstanding performances by the three trafficked girls, Veronica Sywak as their rescuer and Amanda Ma as the distraught, persistent mother create a potently affecting film.

© Avril Carruthers    25^th August 2007