Opening with unsettline images of girls looking like concentration-camp survivors in cheap swimsuits, this quietly effective lo-fi doc explores the trafficking of Russian teens to the Japanese modelling meat market.
But although the journey of 13-year-old Nadya is quietly heartbreaking, the real core is an intriguing character study. Once a teen model, now a conflicted adult, Ashley Arbaugh scouts girls for the same exploited existence (revealed in video diaries) she endured in her youth.
The filmmakers stay back, observing, for a restrained, intimate and poignant result.
