Screening Program - I'VE SEEN FILMS - International Film Festival

I’VE SEEN FILMS 2010
International Film Festival
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Vous êtes servis
FIlm notes
This is a documentary that sends shivers
down your spine. The director and author,
Jorge León, chose to acquaint us with the
drama of the slavery of young Asian maids. It
makes you tremble even more because the
narrative tone is deliberately bare, with no
rhetorical overstatements. The faces of the
Indonesian protagonists, pushed by hunger
to accept back-breaking labor, are faces that,
notwithstanding their conditions, show a
remarkable dignity, and a great desire to live,
as well.
The desperation you detect in their gaunt faces and skinny bodies is also expressed in the things
they say in front of the camera. With no music soundtrack, that could soften the unbearable
pain we get by watching them on the screen, we can only guess what they actually bear to sustain
this daily fight.
Further to the inhuman work pace, there is also the humiliation inflicted by their bosses, who
consider a maid as a mere pack animal.
Each month, thousands of these young women leave for the Asian mainland or the Middle East,
but their dreams often turns into a nightmare: without papers, exploited, they soon discover a
rough reality. Still, they incessantly keep on pouring in: schools continuosuly receive new recruits
eager to learn about rules of conduct, patience and how to use microwave ovens. León makes us
see an extremely complex economical and social system that is mostly hidden and often leads
to terrible consequences. His camera also succeeds in capturing the human dimension: glances, a
smile or a meaningful silence reveal the women’s personalities and the often sad stories behind the
faces.
It took a documentary like this, to inform us of this scarcely known scandal. And, above all, we
needed a documentary that made the facts known first hand, through the witnesses and the
victims of this south-eastern Asiatic hell.
Let’s change our mind on the reassuring idea that we were taught in school: that slavery ended a
long time ago. Unfortunately, slavery still exists and, thankfully, there are filmmakers who take the
trouble to educate us about these horrors.
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