The Jammed

These past few years have seen Australian cinema grow darker than ever before, boldly exposing our cities’ dark underbellies, and fearlessly diving into the previously unexplored or unacknowledged echelons of our society. Inspired by true events, The Jammed is another Australian release that treads where no other films have tread before; exploding into the violent reality of Melbourne’s sex trafficking industry. Director Dee McLachlan cleverly juxtaposes two vastly different worlds by interweaving the story of Ashley (Veronica Sywak), a restless, middle class, insurance company employee, with the story of Crystal (Emma Lung), a recently arrested, Indonesian sex slave about to be dumped in a detention centre because of her expired visa papers. These two worlds collide when Ashley finds herself reluctantly assisting Sunnee (Amanda Ma), a Chinese woman on a desperate search to locate her missing daughter, who they soon learn is now a sex slave working alongside Crystal.

Interestingly, The Jammed was rescued from obscurity only because of the wildly positive reaction it provoked during its (extremely limited) initial release. Some of these reactions do seem excessive, as the film is far from perfect. Its exposition suffers from uneven chronological jumps and generally stilted dialogue and performances. Both the plot and the actors actually take quite a while to warm up, significantly affecting the story’s emotional impact. Even when the film eventually eases into a more natural rhythm, it does tend to dip into unrealistic action sequences and to falter under the weight of a very distracting, overly sentimental score. At the same time, though, there are some brilliant performances in this film (the stand-out being Saskia Burmeister, who is virtually unrecognisable as the Russian prostitute, Vanya,) and the story itself, while perhaps a little convenient, is also admittedly enthralling. Moreover, with Australia listed as the tenth main destination for sex traffic victims, this is a particularly relevant film, and you can’t help but admire McLachlan’s gutsy attempt to highlight this issue. Even though this is not brilliant cinema, this is one of those films with a story that is truly worth telling.

Rating: 8.9