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A Review of the Feature Film Holly

By

Gil Lahav

Shot on location in Cambodia, with scenes filmed in actual brothels of Phnom Penh's notorious red-light district, Holly sheds light on the horrors of child prostitution and trafficking.

Patrick (played by Ron Livingston) is an American card player whose empty expatriate life is jolted out of its slumber when his motorcycle breaks down in the K11 village of child prostitutes. While waiting for his motorcycle to be fixed, Patrick’s moral universe is turned upside down when he meets Holly (played by the talented Thuy Nguyen), a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl who was sold by her impoverished family into sexual slavery.

As Patrick learns more about Holly's irrepressible thirst for freedom and normalcy and the brutally abusive conditions that will destroy her if she isn’t freed, he decides to risk his life of comfortable apathy to save one girl. But as the story progresses, Patrick learns that his simple desire is complicated by ever more insurmountable obstacles in an economically, legally and morally bankrupt system that condones and often encourages the conversion of children into sexual commodities.

Directed by Guy Moshe, Holly was crafted with a memorably gritty but vivaciously real cinematography. Rough angles and occasionally unsteady camera shots accentuate the shady and dangerous elements that govern the world of exploited children. A panoply of color and light capture the exotic locales of the story. Frequent close-ups of the characters provide an uncomfortably intimate look at the human victims that populate Holly's dark world.

In the film Holly, as in the grim reality it portrays, there are no easy answers. The social worker Patrick befriends explains to him that if he buys Holly's freedom then he only fuels economic demand for the very scourge he wants to eradicate. Bringing Holly with him to the USA isn't an option because of the corrupt Cambodian laws that prohibit it. Even the answer that is safest for the victim - leaving her with an NGO that protects children - is an emotionally hollow outcome for Holly, because it means that she must completely disconnect from the one person who has showed her unconditional kindness (Patrick). It also means possibly never seeing her family again.

Holly is a study in cinematic under-statement. While there is no nudity and only one brief scene of violence, the viewer is all too aware of both the appalling crimes to which Holly is subjected and the gritty dangers Patrick faces in his quixotic quest to rescue her. Entire conversations are conveyed with just a few piercing expressions, and simple acts of human kindness or cruelty manage to transcend all differences in age, gender, culture and language. In a film of few words, the motive behind each gift speaks volumes: is a piece of food given by a selfless friend with no agenda, a corrupt cop with money on his mind, or a pedophile in search of sexual favors?

Even the reluctant hero is rendered with subtlety. Accidentally thrust into the dark world of child sexploitation, his initial impulse is just to introduce a moment of compassion and dignity into the otherwise wretched life of the little girl tending to his room at the sleazy guest house where his motorcycle breaks down. There are no grandiloquent soliloquies about his political ideology or objectives. But Patrick’s calm persistence in spurning those who would sell him children makes it clear what side he is on, and his steadfast mission to save Holly becomes a moral one that will give new meaning to his life and hers.

Above all, the film Holly explores the limits of human kindness and courage, and provides a stark reminder of the basic human rights to which all children are entitled: to be free from physical and sexual abuse, to be with their families, and to receive a proper education. To that end, the producers of the film (http://www.priorityfilms.com/) created a companion political campaign (http://www.redlightchildren.org/) with the aim of raising awareness about the issue and effecting change. For its powerful message and for the child victims it represents, Holly is a film that should be seen and supported by every caring adult.