Scottish extrovert (and friend of Jesus) Dougie had some time to spend at the Edinburgh Film Festival, where Guy Moshe's Holly had its world premiere last night. The film is part of a larger effort called the "K-11 Project" to raise awareness about child prositution and illegal sex trafficking in the world.
A depressing subject, but Dougie says the film is powerful. Read on:
Thank God for global warming! This year, the usually miserable Scottish summers have been replaced by gloriously sunny days, making Edinburgh's festivals more of a delight to visit than usual. In this heat, there's nothing better than standing around with an ice cream, watching a street show that claims to perform the Evil Dead trilogy in 5 minutes, using only one actor. Despite this, I found my movie loving instincts drawing me towards the cinema, away from the warmth of the sun, and into the dark, cool halls of the multiplex.
This is this film festival's 60th year, and it's certainly a big one. Boasting guests like Kevin Smith, John Hurt, and Sigourney Weaver, and showcasing films like Little Miss Sunshine, Neo Ned and The Oh In Ohio, the two week festival is packed with new films, director showcases and retrospectives. Yesterday, however, I had the honour of seeing a film I had heard nothing about previously, Holly.
This was the world premiere, meaning I got to walk the red carpet, and hang around in this little room with free alcohol, while rubbing shoulders with people I didn't recognise, but looked important because they had little badges hanging round their necks. Eventually we were granted access to the screen, and I secured my seat about half way back, dead centre. After 15 minutes of introducing the people with badges as producers and the director, the film started.
Thuy Nguyen has her first starring role, as the titular Holly, a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl who has been sold by her poverty-stricken family to a brothel in Cambodia. When Patrick (Ron Livingstone) encounters Holly when his motorcycle breaks down in the red light district of the village, he decides to help her to safety, and get her out of the sickening world of child prostitution.
Patrick's mission takes him across Cambodia in search of Holly, where beautiful scenery is forced to take a back seat to the sordid business that goes on with no one willing or able to stop it. With what is a very arresting subject, the film draws you in and then horrifies you with the startling reality of the situation.
The acting in this film is just amazing. For such a young girl (I believe she's 14) Thuy shows incredible range and maturity, while portraying a young girl trying to find her innocence in a deeply disturbing world. Ron Livingston is equally great as Patrick, a man used to flying solo, but now has this young girl to take care of, because his heart's been opened to her. This is also one of the last films that Chris Penn worked on before his death. He plays Freddie, a dealer of stolen historical artifacts. It's almost a cameo appearance for Penn, but it's another great performance in this important film.
Holly was announced as Guy Moshe's directorial debut, but IMDB shows a film called ?! released in 2002. It doesn't matter either way, as Moshe's work has you locked into the film from scene one. The only thing I can really fault this film on is that the friendship between Patrick and Holly seems, to me anyway, to develop too fast, and maybe adding ten/fifteen minutes to the length of the film (coming in just short of two hours) would have seen this right.
I won't spoil the ending of the film, but you can tell from half way through there's not going to be 'a happy ending', but as Virginie Ledoyen's character Marie says, "Any ending which isn't tragic, is happy".
After the film, Director Guy Moshe and producer Guy Jacobson were fielding questions, which covered stuff like how hard it was to find a girl to play Holly. They wanted a Vietnamese girl in Cambodia because it's apparently more common to find that situation there, than any other nationality. Jacobson told of his time in Cambodia and how many of his real life experiences made it into the film, including a highly disturbing scene where a group of five year olds offer Patrick "yum yum" while a man beside them explains "only yum yum, no boom boom, they too small".
This film is part of the K-11 project, a non-profit venture dedicated to raising awareness of child prostitution and international sex-trafficking.
It's a great cause and one that really needs everyone's attention. They also mention the website www.redlightchildren.org ,which is associated with the K-11 project, and is also trying to end this cruel, disgusting business, which is unfortunately accepted as every day life in other parts of the world.
I don't have any release dates for Holly, but I hope you will give it your support. It's a stunning film that will open your eyes to this other culture, and desperatley need to be seen.
Thanks for the review, Dougie!
