AFP Features
Israeli director launches film on white sex slavery at Venice
Date: Tue, Sep 07, 2004
VENICE, Italy (AFP) - A film about white slavery of eastern European girls in Israel, "Promised Land" by Amos Gitai, has the audiences talking as the Venice International Film Festival reached its half way stage.
Israeli director Gitai bludgeons the viewer with images from the sex trade in his dark movie, shot almost entirely at night or indoors. It begins in the pre-dawn harshness of the Sinai desert where the girls are moved clandestinely across the barbed wire border from Egypt into Israel.
There they are stripped, beaten, raped and auctioned off to the highest bidder to work in the nightclubs and brothels of Tel Aviv, Haifa, and even the West Bank.
"I decided not to romanticize the harsh modern reality of these women. For "Promised Land" I wanted to show concrete, realistic images about the trafficking of women and prostitution," says Gitai.
The film, shot in documentary style with little dialogue, is based on reports from human rights organisations like Amnesty International and human rights lawyers in Israel as well as the testimonies of victims of the white slave traffic.
A key issue Gitai faced was how to show exposed bodies in a non-erotic way.
"One of the most delicate issues I faced was, how do you make a film about sex, about prostitution, and not contribute to the appetite of the consumers."
Cinema has to redress the balance after traditionally portraying prostitution as exotic, repeating 19th century images of bordellos "as kind of fun and entertaining," said Gitai.
"I think we've reached a stage where prostitution is really slavery.
In competition for the Golden Lion prize, "Promised Land" features strong performances from a debutante, Urkrainian-born Diana Bespechni, and British actress Rosamund Pike.
Gitai believes his film and cinema in general can play an important "subversive" role in the Middle East peace process, by pointing up the "undercurrent movements" which continue to connect both sides even though the negotiation process, on the surface, is stalled.
Music is one way of contributing to the exchange, according to Gitai, a soldier who was wounded in the Yom Kippur war before turning his attention to the cinema.
"There's a lot of Arab influence on Israeli music, so it's a form of dialogue, I hope cinema is also. Culture is an active agent" in dialogue.
Another is crime. In the case of "Promised Land" that cooperation is highlighted by Egyptian bedouins smuggling the women to Israel.
"Crime in its anarchic manner crosses borders, and where there is benefit to be made they will make it. And they will create coalitions which normally would not be possible," Gitai said.
"Since I travelled to Egypt to research it, I saw the way that it worked with the Egyptian bedouins on one side crossing to the Israeli side. These are the only existing undercurrent movements because the situation is so blocked on the surface.
"And since the evening news of all the medias like to portray only the obvious conflicting images in this region, I think cinema should continue to do subversive work, it should expose these kind of currents, these kinds of connections, and 'Promised Land' wants to relate to it."
SOURCE
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