Cannot Run Away

feature-length

documentary

(

1988

)

awards

Nomination 'Golden Calf', Utrecht 1988
'Golden Statue', Hilversum 1988
Special Jury Award, Leningrad 1988

Description

Alarming documentary about the internationally occurring phenomenon of traffic in women and forced prostitution.

Molenaar and Van Wijk display the story of two Philippine women who involuntarily worked as prostitutes in Holland. A poignant story that is, horribly enough, an example of thousands of others.
Nena and Alma' s history has roused the Dutch judiciary and media and has eventually made an important contribution to the arrest of Jan S., owner of the Frisian sex-farm where the two women were held prisoners. Considerable credit for this goes to the filmmakers and the two victims who, at first being faced with cultural prejudices, judicial incompetence and personal risks, resolutely kept on searching for evidence against Jan S.

Hillie Molenaar: ‘When we started to make the film, there was no translation in English for the Dutch word ‘Vrouwenhandel’ (it would now be translated as 'trafficking in women’). The only word that came up in that time was ‘white slavery’. So much for the knowledge in that time about this widespread criminal activity…  So, after Jan S. was arrested the first time, the police couldn’t hold him for more than 48 hours, due to the fact that the crime of ‘trafficking’ wasn’t known as such within the juridical criteria of those days. So he fled to his accomplice (from whom he had bought the girls) in The Philippines. With our filmteam I went to look for him in Manilla, found him and was able to hand him over to the Dutch police. After that Jan S. stood trial in The Netherlands and was convicted. That was the beginning of the jurisdiction regarding the trafficking of women in The Netherlands’.

Joop Van Wijk: 'The whole thing was started by a man called Johan, a shepherd, who had gone one evening with a couple of friends to a so-called Sex Farm. There he met ‘Nena’ whom he liked a lot. She told him in secret that she was bought and sold and in fact imprisoned. He was so touched that he ‘abducted’ her from the sex farm, got the police involved and met with us. After the trial, when Jan S. was convicted, Johan and Nena married…’.

Watch now
Production

Molenwiek Film

Coproduction
executive producer
Creative producer
Direction

Hillie Molenaar
Joop Van Wijk

Writer

Dawn Mastin (English)
Djoeke Veeninga (NL)

Interviews

Adul de Léon
Hillie Molenaar

Research

Lin Lap
Hillie Molenaar

Cast

(as themselves):
'Lisa' and 'Linda'

Production design
photography

Eugène van den Bosch

sound

Hens van Rooij

Music

Patricio Wang

editing

Hens van Rooij

Sound design
re-recording

Erik Langhout

Special thanks

Johan
Arnold
Cees Korvinus
H.M. Embassy, Manilla