Ladies and Gentlemen - or rather: Gentlemen of the Oscar-Academy!
With no respect - you are a bunch of jerks, because you disqualified Nigeria's submission for best foreign movie. Did you ever hear that English is a national language in Nigeria? So why are you surprised that people talk this language along regional languages.
And SHAME on distribution companies. You may have lived happily with the thought that this is a little festival film that will silently disappear in the shelves. Instead Netflix bought the distribution rights. Yes, among the piles of junk Netflix has also quality in their catalogue. Thank you Netflix for making this available.
This said, I need to say that this is a necessary film, maybe not necessarily from the top drawer, but a film that is very relevant.
Joy starts with a ceremony. Later we will learn that it is called juju, a ceremony which has the purpose to "protect", but mainly to frighten the young women who are about to be trafficked to Europe. Once they are in Europe - if they come there alive - they have an immense debt which they pay to a Madame. Joy is to introduce a newbie, Precious, to the daily life of a street prostitute. Joy is already a veteran sex worker. We follow her, as their are occasional glimpses of hope, followed by pressure from home to send more money. There is always a risk that a violent customer might beat her up or - even more threatening - that the police might catch her and send her back. We see that joy is in a vicious circle that cannot be broken.
6/10
With no respect - you are a bunch of jerks, because you disqualified Nigeria's submission for best foreign movie. Did you ever hear that English is a national language in Nigeria? So why are you surprised that people talk this language along regional languages.
And SHAME on distribution companies. You may have lived happily with the thought that this is a little festival film that will silently disappear in the shelves. Instead Netflix bought the distribution rights. Yes, among the piles of junk Netflix has also quality in their catalogue. Thank you Netflix for making this available.
This said, I need to say that this is a necessary film, maybe not necessarily from the top drawer, but a film that is very relevant.
Joy starts with a ceremony. Later we will learn that it is called juju, a ceremony which has the purpose to "protect", but mainly to frighten the young women who are about to be trafficked to Europe. Once they are in Europe - if they come there alive - they have an immense debt which they pay to a Madame. Joy is to introduce a newbie, Precious, to the daily life of a street prostitute. Joy is already a veteran sex worker. We follow her, as their are occasional glimpses of hope, followed by pressure from home to send more money. There is always a risk that a violent customer might beat her up or - even more threatening - that the police might catch her and send her back. We see that joy is in a vicious circle that cannot be broken.
6/10
