Hope Lost — A Movie Review
How not to deal with difficult topics
There are always movies that deal with controversial topics. Sometimes directors and producers want to show the abysses of the world. A tried and tested stylistic device is to show the viewer the unflinching truth in moving pictures.
However, when dealing with difficult topics, it is important to show the viewer a solution at the end. If you are going to make a film about human trafficking and forced prostitution, where even the most gruesome details are not spared, you should at least leave the viewer with a glimmer of hope or a solution at the end.
Italian director David Petrucci tackled this very subject in his thriller Hope Lost. However, this production raises questions that do not show the director in the best light.
The plot
Romanian seamstress Sofia (Francesca Agostini) meets TV producer Gabriel (Andrei Chernyshov) at a disco. He invites her to Rome, where he wants to offer her a job as a model. Sofia agrees and sets off.
When she arrives in Rome, she is put up in a shabby room. The next morning, the trafficker Manol (Michael Madson) tells her that she will work for him as a prostitute and work off a debt of 30,000 euros. This is the amount that Manol used to buy Sofia from Gabriel.
