What a beautiful movie!

Fantastic!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

For those of you that have seen this film and are wondering what has happened to the beautiful girl with the large eyes, that was gang raped by 15 Cambodian men in a rice field and left to die in a ditch is alive and well. She has been my girlfriend for the past 3 years. I came across this film only 1 year ago and had no idea she was ever filmed. What is truly amazing about her she has remained a sweet and gentle human being even though living a horrific existence for 8 long years. Background - She was abducted from her Province when she was 16 years old by Vietnamese human traffickers that had befriended her while she was selling fruits and vegetables in her village. She ended up enslaved at the Bodene in Phnom Penh and was forced to give up her virginity and work as a sex worker in a brothel situation, on the streets and parks of Phnom Penh. Her every move was being controlled by those that abducted her. If she did not bring back enough money she was beaten, tortured and raped. This went on for nearly 6 years before a friend of hers was able to buy her enslavers off. For the next 2 years she worked in the bars of Phnom Penh where she first encountered foreign men. Although, still a sex worker, she was finally on her own. She lived with other friends that were also sex workers but still had unwanted encounters with corrupt police and Khmer men. I first met her at Walkabout Hotel & Pub and the rest is history. Today she lives with me in Phnom Penh and when needed takes care of her family responsibilities in her home Province. In my eyes she is a miracle from God.

This is the shocking story of the victimization of Cambodia's poorest, youngest women - not by the Western sex tourists one might guess could be the culprits but by Cambodian "men" themselves.I was able to see this documentary at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Washington, D.C. It captures the plight of adolescents and young women who have been forced into sexual slavery under the guise of working in beer halls, karaoke joints, and massage parlors. As if that weren't bad enough, Western pornography-fueled gang rapes and a police force that denies rape exists exacerbate the situation. The filmmaker succeeds in extracting extremely honest-sounding statements from the women themselves as well as the Cambodian "men" who seem to lack any empathy for their fellow human beings and countrywomen. It's all about satisfying their urges, and if the victims' lives are destroyed as a result, well, it doesn't seem result in a bit of compunction.A beautiful and elegant older Cambodian woman -- I didn't catch the reference to who she was -- states in the film that the problem of child sex slavery and gang rape could be solved largely by teaching men to respect women. I would agree. But how? Another impressive source in the documentary is a spokesman for Action Pour les Enfants, which works for the human rights of these tragic victims. (As the film ended, I could not wait to track this group down so that I could contribute to the cause.)The only problem with this film was the confusion prompted by its epilogue, which attempts to bring us up to date with what's going on in present-day Cambodia. The epilogue suggests that some aspects of this problem are being cleaned up at the instigation of the United States. Such statements leave one wondering about exactly what IS the status of the sex slaves today? Even so, human trafficking remains a huge problem worldwide and anyone who sees this film will learn a lot about the scourge.

I was lucky enough to see this film in Cambodia during a visit there. There was a huge crowd of both Westerners and Cambodians to see this and a second documentary "The Girls of Phnom Penh". This documentary showed that not all of the clients that come to the brothels are Westerners, but are mostly Cambodians. The parallels of what they believe and what African societies believe about sleeping with a virgin are eerie. Cambodia has a huge problem with human trafficking and sex slavery, and films like this need to be watched so that more people are informed of what is the problem and the reasons behind it. The girls who are interviewed give powerful and moving testimonies, and this is a film that is not to be missed.