The Wolves of Brazil, a film review
Cinderellas, Wolves, and Prince Charming
(Cinderelas, lobos e um príncipe encantado)
Written and Directed by Joel Zito Araújo
Brazil, 2008. 106 minutes.
Screening at the MOMA Premiere Brazil film festival.
Joel Zito Araújo’s Cinderellas, Wolves, and Prince Charming is a quirky, meandering documentary film that reveals the underbelly of the cross-border sex trade of Brazil. Over 900,000 women a year enter the sex trade each year, joining an estimated 20 million modern day slaves. Lured by promises of romantic marriages to wealthy Europeans, they board planes and are quickly ensnared within violent organized crime rings.
However, the exploiters of the sex trade are not always sinister Mafiosos. They are just as frequently boring middle-aged European males who travel to the country for sex. Some prey upon minors, while others seek a few weeks of unbridled companionship with prostitutes. Through numerous interviews with sex workers and sexual tourists alike, Cinderellas exposes the pernicious stereotypes which perpetuate the trade in a country suffering from poverty. The battle to end the sex trade will not just begin with stopping the traffickers, it will also entail debunking age-old myths of the exotic.
