Eden (Abduction of Eden) is a 2012 American dramatic film about human trafficking. It was directed by Megan Griffiths, who co-wrote the screenplay with Richard B. Phillips and stars Jamie Chung, Matt O'Leary and Beau Bridges. The film was produced by Colin Harper Plank and Jacob Mosler through Plank's Centripetal Films production company. It was inspired by the story of Chong Kim, who claims that she was kidnapped and sold into a domestic human trafficking ring in the mid 1990s. It had its world premiere at the 2012 South by Southwest Film Festival.
In 2014, the non-profit organization Breaking Out claimed they had investigated Kim's story and concluded it was false and aimed to defraud charitable organizations.
Plot
Hyun Jae, or Jae for short, is an 18-year-old Korean-American girl living in New Mexico in 1994 with her immigrant parents. Jae goes out one night with a friend and is seduced by a fireman and is given a ride home by the fireman, but Jae notices the fire badge is fake and attempts to escape, but is promptly captured and is shown tied up in the trunk of a man's car at the beginning of the film.
A marshal named Bob begins following a tracking beacon which leads him to the body of a dead teenage girl with a tracking bracelet strapped to her ankle which is currently being investigated by one officer as well as the landowner. Upon learning the officer has not called in the dead body, Bob promptly shoots both the officer and landowner.
Jae is taken to an isolated warehouse where she is drugged and has her braces removed and personal belongings disposed of and is fitted with a tracking bracelet and put into a storage warehouse later called the stables. Jae is introduced to Bob who is revealed to be the leader of a sex trafficking ring and his drug addicted overseer Vaughn. Bob informs Jae that he has information about her parents and that they will be harmed if she doesn't cooperate and renames her Eden and gives her some time to adapt to her new life. Eden is forced to go through daily pregnancy tests and mystery injections from the nurse and is forced to star in sex videos and prostituted out where she attempts to escape but is promptly captured by Vaughn and is forced to lay in a bathtub of ice as punishment where she could possibly die.
One year passes and Eden has adapted to life in the operation and has befriended her bunk mate Priscilla who informs her that once a girl gets too old they are mysteriously taken away, moments later Priscilla is taken away for unknown reasons. Eden notices that Vaughn's trustee has obtained her ring she was given by her father the day of her abduction and makes an attempt to forcibly retrieve it from her which Vaughn and an enforcer intervenes. Vaughn forces Eden to eat the ring, but Eden volunteers to assist Vaughn in over seeing the operation and can help him with accounting which Vaughn rejects. After performing one night at a college fraternity party, Eden assists Vaughn in accounting from the fraternity and assists Vaughn in recapturing 2 girls who attempted to escape and obtains Vaughn's trust. Eden begins replaced Vaughn's old trustee and begins answering phones and assisting with day to day operations and is taken out of the sex field side of the operation.
Bob is shown leading a seminar on drug trafficking, but is questioned by detectives as he was placed by a GPS at the location of a missing deputy and landowner which Bob denies. Eden and Vaughn meet Bob later to dispose of bodies in the nearby lake including Vaughn's old trustee. Vaughn kills Bob on the boat presumably because of his implication the death of the deputy and landowner.
One day while answering phones, Eden is taking a customers order where the customer asks how much which is an indication that it is a police sting, but Eden ignores the advise and takes the order and says nothing. Eden and Vaughn take a girl to a man's house named Mario and instantly recognizes him as the one who abducted her. Eden explores the house and finds Priscilla who is heavily pregnant and gets into a small argument and leaves to throw up as Eden realizes they sell babies. Vaughn notices Eden's small breakdown and attempts to force Eden to kill a girl in the desert to prove her loyalty but is stopped at the last minute by Vaughn.
Vaughn is informed that one of his enforcers have flipped on the operation, presumably because of Eden sending him to a sting. Eden is forced to start packing the girls for the move, and is taken to Vaughn's house where Vaughn informs her they are moving to Dubai. While Eden is left a lone, she covers Vaughn's meth pipe in chemicals which Vaughn inhales and dies. Eden cuts the tracking bracelet off her ankle freeing herself from the operation and takes drugs and money from Vaughn's house and goes to Mario's house. Eden attempts to negotiate Priscilla's freedom, but Mario refuses but asks to see her again which Mario agrees, but while his back is turned Eden injects Mario with drugs and kills him. Eden finds Priscilla who tells the heartbroken Priscilla that her baby was sold and escapes the house with Priscilla. Eden finds a pay phone and builds up the courage to call her Mother for the first time and finally talks to her mother after years in slavery and is last shown listening to her in tears mother cry as she looks at the distorted image of her face in the payphone reflecting on all that she has done and been through.
Cast
- Jamie Chung as Hyun Jae "Eden" (based on Chong Kim)
- Matt O'Leary as Vaughan
- Beau Bridges as Bob
- Eddie Martinez as Mario
- Naama Kates as Svetlana
- Jeanine Monterroza as Priscilla
- Scott Mechlowicz as Jesse
- Tantoo Cardinal as The Nurse
Production
Eden was produced by Centripetal Films and filmed in Washington State in the summer of 2011, with a largely local crew and funding assistance from Washington Filmworks, a government supported non-profit organization that provides financial support for films produced in Washington State. The idea for the film came into being when screenwriter Richard B. Phillips contacted Chong Kim after reading a newspaper article about her account of being sold into and escaping a domestic human trafficking ring. Phillips then proposed the idea of writing a screenplay based on Kim's story. Kim agreed, and the two of them set about writing a story for the film. That story was later turned into a screenplay by Phillips. Plank then hired Megan Griffiths to revise the script, and later hired Griffiths to direct the film.
Critical reception
Eden has a score of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 33 reviews. Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times said the film was "never less than suspenseful, but rather than sentimentally pander to easy outrage, or indulge in icky women-in-distress titillation, the movie...zeros in on the details of how dignity can be stripped like bark from a tree, and the queasy determination it takes to stay alive in a living hell." Jeff Shannon from Seattle Times awarded the film with 3 out of 4 stars and said that "Cruelty, bloodletting and death are evident throughout (frequently occurring just outside the frame), and Griffith's laudable discretion actually intensifies their impact." Stephen Holden of the New York Times said that "Enough films about human trafficking have been made in recent years that the outlines of Eden should be painfully familiar. But that familiarity doesn’t cushion this movie’s excruciating vision." Along with Holden's review Eden was also selected as one of New York Times Critics' Pick. Stephanie Carrie of the Village Voice said "overall, this is a powerful addition to the small collection of films dedicated to spreading awareness of this horrific crime."
Many critics particularly praised the performance of Jamie Chung. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian said that "a very strong performance from Chung impresses". Matthew Turner of ViewLondon said "Chung duly steps up, delivering an emotionally complex performance that requires her to keep her true feelings closely guarded (we also see her distance herself from her work by adopting a different persona)" and ended by saying that it was a "terrific central performance from Jamie Chung". Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote "a quite moving performance comes from Jamie Chung as Eden, repulsion sliding into fearful acceptance without the extinction of hope."
Some reviews were negative. Farran Smith Nehme of the New York Post called it "a Lifetime movie gone upscale-grindhouse" and criticized the South by Southwest festival's decision to give the film an award. Nehme also questioned the film's authenticity. David Fear of Time Out said the film's second half "head[s] south of ludicrous, [and] Eden’s goodwill dissipates." Fear also questioned the film's authenticity.
Accusations of fraud
On June 4, 2014, the non-profit anti-trafficking organization Breaking Out announced on their Facebook page that, after a year-long investigation of Chong Kim and her life, they had "found no truth to her story. In fact, we found a lot of fraud, lies, and most horrifically capitalizing and making money on an issue where so many people are suffering from [sic]." Breaking Out also accused Kim of defrauding several organizations out of charitable donations and announced a coming lawsuit. Later that day, Griffiths commented on her Twitter account, "I just heard about this today and it came as a shock. I am deeply concerned about it." Eden's official website claims that "A portion of the net profits from EDEN will benefit anti-slavery organizations." Kim responded on her Facebook page, stating "I don't appreciate you spreading lies about me … Whatever you claim to have I have the right to see it otherwise I will send you and your organization a formal complaint."
After these accusations arose, Noah Berlatsky of Salon compared Kim to Somaly Mam and commented that the film was thickly layered with exploitation tropes and improbable scenarios. Berlatsky found it shocking that "anyone took this clearly fanciful, clearly derivative fiction for fact". Journalist Elizabeth Nolan Brown criticized "the authors who repeated Kim's story, the journalists who interviewed her, the organizations that brought her on as a speaker, or any of the myriad people behind the 'based on a true story' Eden" for not checking and verifying Kim's claims. Journalist Mike Ludwig argued that the narrative promoted by the film harmed consensual sex workers. Seattle sex worker Mistress Matisse had been questioning the veracity of the film since 2012. Matisse stated that Colin Plank and Megan Griffiths "perpetrated a fraud in their movie called Eden."
The Stranger journalist David Schmader had previously called the film a masterpiece and the best film ever made in Seattle, but has since called its back story "bullshit." Stranger writer Jen Graves was highly critical of Griffith's lack of research into Kim's story and regretted her initial support of the film. Since Breaking Out first made their allegations, Griffiths and others directly associated with the film have refused to comment further, but the film's official website continues to promote the film as "Inspired by the harrowing true story of Chong Kim." In 2012 Griffiths won the Stranger Film Genius Award. Charles Mudede, a Stranger writer and former winner of the award, wrote that Eden had "secured her nomination" and was "a masterpiece".
On June 25, 2014 Kim's PR firm Bradshaw & Co. publicly denied the allegations and referenced a pending lawsuit. Since its initial allegation, Breaking Out has continued to release information about Kim on their Facebook page, including court documents detailing Kim’s 2009 felony charge of theft by swindle, for which Kim was ordered to pay $15,000 "to another human trafficking victim and activist in Minnesota."
Awards and accolades
The film premiered at the 2012 South by Southwest film festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature, Special Jury Recognition for Best Actress, Jamie Chung, and the award for Emergent Narrative Female Director, Megan Griffiths.
It also won the Golden Space Needle Award for Best Actress, Jamie Chung and the Lena Sharpe Award for Persistence of Vision; Seattle Reel NW Award at the 2012 Seattle International Film Festival.
It also won the Audience Award for Best Film at the 2012 San Diego Asian Film Festival
Release
Eden was released theatrically in North America by Phase 4 Films on March 20, 2013 at Film Forum in New York City. It also played theatrically in Los Angeles and Seattle, followed by a release on VOD on April 20, 2013. It was released on DVD on June 11, 2013. The DVD and Blu-ray were released in the UK by Queensway Digital Ltd on September 9, 2013.
A May 2013 screening in Seattle included a panel discussion about human trafficking sponsored by Hope for Justice and the World Affairs Council of Seattle, with panelists including Washington State senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles and YouthCare social worker Leslie Briner. Kohl-Welles had sponsored an anti-sex trafficking bill in the Washington State congress earlier that year and would be a major supporter of the Motion Picture Competitiveness Bill. Kohl-Welles and Griffiths were later panelists of the 2014 Seattle Film Summit, which called Kohl-Welles "the most vocal and reliable supporters of the State’s film industry", and Griffiths spoke at an October 2014 fundraiser in support of Kohl-Welles's re-election.
The international distribution rights were licensed by Cinema Management Group.
See also
- Forbidden Lies
- Human trafficking in popular culture
- Norma Khouri
References
External links
- Eden on IMDb