Matrioshki - Mädchenhändler

It's strange, but while the crime genre exhausts countless variations of certain topics - such as the drug scene or terrorism - screenwriters consistently avoid others. Among them is the potentially attractive world of white meat trade. Besides the British series The Vice and the British film Sex Traffic, my memory cannot offer anything else. Belgian television has decided to fill this gap with an extensive project called Matrioshki, which follows the destinies of Eastern European girls lured under the pretext of working as dancers in Western Europe. The hall turns into a bar, the stage into space around the pole, and the dance into a provocative strip show, where work commitment is expected along with a wide range of sexual pleasures and the constant risk that, in case of weaker performance, the girls will end up in a substandard brothel with aggressive clients and with the prospect of the worst kind of sexual exploitation. The destinies of the girls and members of the criminal gang twist and turn; some manage to escape in time, while others do not survive until the end of the ride. But everyone ultimately pays a price. Matrioshki presents a well-executed suspenseful series with a realistic tone and without cheap screenwriting tricks or gimmicks, featuring appropriately repulsive yet believable villains and not entirely unblemished heroes on the other side. It is a shame that some characters disappear as the episodes progress. It would be interesting to follow the side storylines and develop the stories of supporting characters. Overall impression: 75%. (12.06.2014)

The first season of Matrioshki actually had a double collective hero. It was a group of girls from the post-Soviet space who were lured to Belgium under false pretenses and ended up in a strip bar. The second collective hero was the employees of this establishment, who stood on the other side of the imaginary barricade. The series evenly divided its attention among the individual characters, and the absence of a main character surprisingly did not bother anyone. The second series of Matrioshki is more ambitious, and the viewers will venture into Southeast Asia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Transnistria, and there are also many more characters and players. Characters appear and disappear, and the screenwriting is somewhat fragmented. Just as the viewer begins to develop a relationship with a character, they die or disappear, so the impressions are a bit mixed - partly because the screenwriter sacrificed potentially more interesting characters, from whom I would expect a much more significant development. However, the development of the characters in the gang is interesting, as they acquire a more tragicomic dimension as their business and actions gradually spiral out of control. Overall impression: 70%. (16.08.2014)