This is an interesting portrayal of women who make a living by dating rich men and the fascination one girl has to the lifestyle even when it's not money she's after, but love, validation and adventure.
Flashbacks to the actual trafficking stop early on, so we don't get the whole backstory as to how she ended up back in Moscow after befriending the other two women. We also don't know why Katya ended up in the modeling agency to begin with, if she didn't realize she was being trafficked.
The film would've been more interesting had it shown her learning the ropes more- no privileged girl would suddenly know how to maneuver rich men out of nowhere. The mentorship element in the friendship dynamic is missing, and the tragedy that befalls all of them towards the end was all too predictable and from a narrative perspective, way too easy.
More psychological exploration would have benefited. Why, if the other two women are able bodied and seem relatively intelligent, is this their end all be all? What is their motivation besides money and lifestyle? Lastly, why would a girl who was raped return back to her abuser as if nothing had happened? Money wouldn't justify this AT ALL psychologically. Some of this was poorly crafted.
It does show in some ways the extremely low self-worth and the abuse, bodily and emotionally that someone puts themselves through to get that expensive bag or the car. They keep asking each other "why do you put up with that?" with no response- yeah, I'm still waiting on a response too.
Flashbacks to the actual trafficking stop early on, so we don't get the whole backstory as to how she ended up back in Moscow after befriending the other two women. We also don't know why Katya ended up in the modeling agency to begin with, if she didn't realize she was being trafficked.
The film would've been more interesting had it shown her learning the ropes more- no privileged girl would suddenly know how to maneuver rich men out of nowhere. The mentorship element in the friendship dynamic is missing, and the tragedy that befalls all of them towards the end was all too predictable and from a narrative perspective, way too easy.
More psychological exploration would have benefited. Why, if the other two women are able bodied and seem relatively intelligent, is this their end all be all? What is their motivation besides money and lifestyle? Lastly, why would a girl who was raped return back to her abuser as if nothing had happened? Money wouldn't justify this AT ALL psychologically. Some of this was poorly crafted.
It does show in some ways the extremely low self-worth and the abuse, bodily and emotionally that someone puts themselves through to get that expensive bag or the car. They keep asking each other "why do you put up with that?" with no response- yeah, I'm still waiting on a response too.