Gardens Of The Night

I can't really find the right words to describe just how powerful this movie is. It's a sad, sorrowful movie about a little girl named Leslie who gets manipulated into believing that her parents don't want her anymore and that her father has placed her in the care of two of his employees. When in truth Leslie had been kidnapped by two perverse males that run a child sex slave operation. One important part of this film is that it's very soft-core in that it doesn't exploit the child actors or show the abuse so much as it suggests it. Too many movies today show violence and sex crimes in a graphic way on screen for shock effect. The story goes on to explain a web of lies being set up around the main character whist she is unaware or and possibly too damaged to except the truth of whats really happened to her. At the hands of her captors is another child a boy named Donny who is subjected to the same torture and fate as Leslie and they form a strong emotional bond that numbs them to the reality they live in while they pretend to be characters from The Jungle Book as a way to cope and escape their life. As the story progresses you see them go from children to teens that are now on their own living on the street as prostitutes, when Leslie is offered an opportunity to move up into a prostitution ring that will take care of her. However there is a catch. Leslie has to befriend a homeless 12 year old girl living in a shelter and then turn her out into a child sex slave using the same manipulating tactics used on her when she was a child. It's a movie that left me shattered emotionally but also numb in a way. We all know that evil exists and that it's out there in the world. Sometimes we feel it or see it's shadow but I for one have never truly been touched by it. It made all my pain and what I've been trough seem like a Disney theme park. Because once someone has really been touched or even taken by evil it changes you forever. The world we live in more often than not is full of vibrant color but when real evil finds you it's like the world switches over to black and white. An the longer you survive it or live in it the wider the gap between the two and you gets. I hope to never fully understand and experience that truth first hand. Most of us have no idea just how lucky we are. I highly recommend this movie to everyone. If you have children in particular or plan to have kids this a great almost educational movie in a way because it shows you a side to the world you would rather not think about and it can also show you what to look out for and teach you to defend oneself against it. All the actors were amazing. It's a heartbreaking movie but a good one.