Paedophilic Ring - Fact or Fiction?

 Sound of Freedom (2022)
 Director: Alejandro Monteverde

This movie drew a lot of flak from either side of the spectrum. People over the subject matter put forward in the movie cry foul over the lack of publicity about this movie. On the other end, those who stand by the belief that the whole talk of the existence of secret pedophilic prostitution is bunkum are up in arms. They cannot believe that Tinseltown is pandering to conspiracy theorists. It does not help that it is the third highest-grossing film in the US after Barbie and Oppenheimer. 

On one end, big studios had malaise, like Fox and later Disney, which bought Fox to get off the ground. It had to be purchased by a small independent studio funded by crowdsourcing and the excellent work of Mel Gibson and the movie star Jim Caviezel, who played the protagonist Tom Ballard.

For a long time, during Trump's tenure, a strong lobbyist swore to the presence of an entity called QAnon. Nobody could pinpoint who QAnon actually was, but rumours were rife that it could be someone entrenched deep within the Administration, or it could be Mr Donald Trump himself. QAnon was supposed to be prophetic, a seer who could foresee events yet to happen and would whisper cryptic messages to the general public. 

One of the most damaging rumours that went around then was the existence of Pizzagate. Pizzagate became a code word for the proof of the existence of Satanistic, hedonistic, cannibalistic child abusers with a big pedophilic ring within the Democratic Party of the USA. They allegedly drank tortured children's blood to reap the benefit of adrenochrome, an elixir of youth. The ring later involved a more comprehensive web, including moguls of the cinema industry, royalties and public figures. Nobody has been convicted thus far for such crimes, but it will not die soon. The latest victim is Hunter Biden, the son of POTUS Joe Biden. 

Slavery never really died. It just got rebranded. The hunt for wealth will continue as long as the economic divide grows exponentially worldwide and fiat money is used to gauge an individual's success. With wealth, decadence becomes a well-deserved fringe benefit. The march to the wild side becomes a dare. The market for sex for hire and appetite for experimental experiences grows exponentially, too.

Despite the numerous laws enacted worldwide by governments and world bodies, children are abducted and trafficked over borders for multiple reasons, including child labour, adoption, begging, working as child soldiers and serving as sex slaves.

This film is based on the real-life experiences of Tim Ballard, a Homeland Security Agent who left his job at the agency to start a non-profit organisation called Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), credited for rescuing thousands of children from sex trafficking rings. In this movie, he travels to Columbia to rescue a preteen Honduran girl from one of these rings.

Detractors to the successes of OUR insist that their laurels were highly exaggerated. They insist that all the trafficked children were abducted and kept outside the USA. What they forget is that there is a market for it, and their customers are Americans who frequent them outside American shores.

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Tackling the complex issue tactfully!

Fundamentally Happy (Singapore; 2015)
Director: Yuan Bin Lei & Bee Thiam Tan
Writers: Haresh Sharma &Alvin Tan

I would have not given this film a second look if not for the fact that somebody mentioned that this Singapore film got the boot from the Film Censorship Board (LPF). It was initially done as a play and was staged in Kuala Lumpur without much fanfare, but as a film, a no-no. So, when someone mentioned that it was screened on Mubi, I grabbed the chance.

The censors gave for prohibiting screening because the film contains "elements that may be sensitive to the feelings of Malaysian Malays and may be interpreted by Malaysian Malays as an attempt to reflect the community's attitude towards those who abuse the weak to fulfil their desires".

This ridiculous statement given by the powers given the cloud what the general public can be exposed is as absurd as what a retired Malaysian judge had said in a public address, that a particular Muslim cannot be charged for criminal breach of trust as by virtue of being a Muslim, he could do no wrong. As ridiculous as it sounds, he was not misquoted and had since gone into oblivion.

A single swallow does not make a whole summer. Hence, the subject matter in the film is specific to one ethnicity or culture. Paedophilia transcends all societies. It is a very sensitive subject. It negatively affects everyone. The aggressor may regret the whole thing, or he may not. He may just regret that he got but to do it on the sly. The victim may be too scarred to explore and re-open the old wounds yet again. The parties linked to the aggressor may also stand to lose by exposing all dirty linen in public. After all the investigation and public humiliation, there is no guarantee that the long arm of the law will mete out justice. The long ordeal may lead to nothing, and the victims still have to live through the trauma for the rest of their remaining lives. Anyway, how will punishing the perpetrator erase the scar that is imprinted deep in one's psyche?

This film tells about a 30-year-old young man, Eric (Singaporean actor Joshua Lim), who pays a visit to his old neighbour, Habibah (Malaysian actress Adibah Amin). After an initial cordial reminiscence of their good old times, Eric was a young boy who used to frequent Habibah's home. Slowly, the conversation turns murky, as Eric vaguely remembers Habibah's husband's awkward advances towards Eric. The home environment seems to bring those old disturbing memory to Eric. Habibah defends her husband whilst Eric accuses her of being complicit. She further accuses him of initiating and enjoying all the unholy liaisons.

In the second half of the show, the husband seems to have been interrogated by the police. Eric returns to Habibah's home and has another conversation with her. This time they bear to open their inner feelings about Ismail, Habibah's husband. They explore the complex issue of abuse with the grace of love.

Done in a theatrical performance style, it is packed with razor-sharp dialogue and a feisty display of emotions. A powerful presentation performed well by the actors. 8/10.  

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Normalising objectification?

Cuties (Mignonnes, French; 2020)

Back in secondary school, my friend AK, and I were engaged in an in-depth discussion on the topic of American situational comedies which later became to be abbreviated as sitcoms. AK was adamant that the depictions of teenagers, then in family dramas, were detrimental to the behaviours of people. The fighting back, the rudeness, the promiscuity of teenagers, the docile nature of parents were bound to have change on the local society. This would happen even though the storyline would indicate poetic justice at the end. Even though good virtues would prevail over bad, viewers tend to remember the bank heist rather than how the robbers suffered for their feat - their unsettling life whilst being on the run and the incarceration later on.

The same thing happened in this film. Even though the movie's storyline is genuine in highlighting the current societal obsession in adultification of preteens, the cinematography and wardrobe department just conveyed the opposite message. Viewers from the world over are up in arms objecting to the portrayal of 11 years pre-pubertal girls in age-inappropriate attires, twerking and engaging in dance moves that leave nothing to the imagination but are overt sexual postures ala-WAP.

After irritating Hindu audiences in India, now American viewers have joined the chorus of people who have started supporting #CancelNetflix. They accuse Netflix of promoting child pornography and have requested the FBI to initiate investigations along that line.

Depiction does not equate to an endorsement, they say, but as mentioned earlier, viewers only remember the awe factor. Five years down the line, people would only remember this movie as one which showed tween twerking, not the fact that it brought to the surface the constant peer pressure, the desire to fit in and the stress of coming of age. 

No one would remember that this film also showed how children of immigrants find it so difficult to be accepted by the natives of their newfound homes. Nobody can understand why the immigrant parents are hellbent on keeping alive their age-old traditions as their traditions failed to make a utopia in their homeland. It is the pull factors in the new countries that drew them like bees to the pollen. Indeed it is idiotic to consider that people in the new country are practising some kind of inferior way of life. It would not have made them so open-hearted to accept immigrants and bear with all the baggage that comes with them.

The film also shows the hypocrisy of societies that expects women to play second fiddle to all the antics of man whilst still appearing happy about it as if it the will of God to be subservient to men and live without a brain. On the one hand, it expects women to be pure but at the same time, objectifies women to fill the lust of men. This way of thinking is not limited to societies perceived as 'backwards'. Even progressive communities are guilty of this.

This presentation is a cautionary tale to remind us of our constant craving to push the limit of what is accepted as the norm. There was a time when there was no such thing as childhood. Little people feel grateful to be born and fed. They watch and learn and fit into societies as contributing individuals. Then the community decreed that little people need to be educated and have to have a proper childhood that develops character. Their biological requirements took a backburner. They had much more to achieve in life. Then the bar was progressively lowered. Social interactions and mingling of sexes were the standards. With affluence and reduction of responsibilities on the young shoulders, their interests peaked elsewhere. 

We should not forget that it is not easy for teenagers to grow up in the digital era. With so much scrutiny by peers and imaginary 'friends' in the social media sphere as well as pervasive cancel culture that is out to crucify anyone who does not conform to the general flavour of the month, emotional health can never be serene. At an age when they themselves are unsure of many things around them, the last persons they would listen to are adults. All the life experiences that adults preach will only fall on deaf ears. No matter how self-defeating their peers' action may be, it is nevertheless, more appealing to their age-group.

There is a difference in reading about young girls engaging in precocious activities than viewing them on screen. What is more unpalatable is when it is performed by underaged actors. In the name of art and wanting to pass a public message, is this justified?

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