Chaos (2001)

CHAOS is a rousing and daring tale combining aspects of pulse-pounding melodrama with loopy battle-of-the-sexes comedy. Helene and Paul, a bourgeois couple, are rushing to a dinner engagement when they see Malika, a young prostitute being chased by three men. As the thugs attack the woman, Paul immediately rolls up the windows and speeds off. Full of remorse, Helene tracks down Malika in the hospital. As Helene nurses Malika through her recovery, she realizes that her life has been changed forever. She can never return to her selfish husband and son.

Malika tells Helene a shocking story. She ran away from her family after her father sold her to an Algerian businessman. Homeless, living on the streets, she was turned into a sex slave by a vicious criminal organization. In the tense final act, Helene joins forces with Malika in an elaborate and daring scheme to double–cross her pimps and get both her freedom and her revenge.

Excellent drama/thriller/comedy.

Wow! Considering it was the same director who did Ringu this is a complete change of pace and he is one talented director.

This movie reminded me of Diva, a mix of action, suspense, comedy, tragedy, women's plight in Muslim society and the battle of the sexes.

Starts off simply with a man and woman stuck in their car because the husband doesn't want to get out and help a woman being attacked. He won't even stop to see if she's alive or call the hospital. A real jerk. His wife who doesn't do anything either does eventually call the emergency room and does take action to save the victim. That's just the beginning. The movie then turns into something else: a marriage that's just about over; a son who is spoiled and rotten (like the father); a society that treats their women worse than animals, etc.

Mainly, it's how two women fight back and take their lives into their own hands and begin again.

The beginning is amazing when the husband refuses to see his mother who has come from the country. After leaving, the mother waits and sees that his son was there but didn't want to see her.

Then the wife, who lied to the mother, tries to see her son but is told by his then-girlfriend he's not there. Across the street, she sees her son leave. What goes round comes round. A reall wake-up call.

This is one amazing movie that you will not forget. You really care about these two women. January 28, 2008

Girl Power! Way Cool Movie

This movie was a surprise. Without telling too much of the story, it is an adult comedy. Want to learn French? It is a very good learning tool if you want to learn the French of today. Nice example, uses everyday slang. Some of the subject matter is a little strong but Life is Stranger than Ficiton. January 10, 2007

An Odd and Brave Movie

This is odd and ultimately endearing film combines gawky physical humor with weighty material regarding the roles of women in Muslim and French cultures.

By the time the credits rolled, I was willing to forgive the film's more implausible plot twists, partially because it is a brave movie. The director was willing to shine a light upon the forced subservience of women in Muslim society, and to a degree, in "modern" French society as well. April 16, 2006

Sex Slavery in France and How to Beat It

This movie is one of my favorite films. Radhika Brakni is terrific as a young, beautiful Moslem girl who escapes her father's plot to sell her in marriage to an older man only to find herself kinapped by a sex slavery ring. Using her wits, she uses her sexuality (and knowledge of men) to get rich and hides these funds from the pimps. When they find out, they attempt to beat her to death.

When a French male collides with the girl on the road, he ignores her danger - thus leading to the terrible beating. The wife of the driver (Helene) is haunted by the apathy of her husband (and her son) so she tracks down the endangered prostitute and nurses her back to health.

Now, it's a game of cat and mouse as the thugs try to recapture
the heroine, and she joins up with Helene and her mother to escape the brutal kidnappers. In the end, the criminals get their due...and the men in Helene's life are "left out in the cold."This is a chic flic so women everywhere will love this film. It has a very satisfying ending as the prostitute cleverly engineers her revenge. Notwithstanding the positive ending, the movie makes the viewer painfully aware of the heart-rending condition of girls trapped, misled, and kidnapped into sex slavery. Thereforethe film serves as an expose of the social nightmare of sexual slavery. It certainly motivated me to get involved to fund those humanitarian projects assisting women escape real slavery throughout the world. This is a great film with an important societal message. Don't lose the opportunity of seeing it. January 28, 2006

Three Cheers for the Women!

This is a riveting story centering upon the relationship of portions of French and Arab society to its women. The protagonist is brought up in a French-Arab household and is subject to all of the clichés that this signifies . . the treatment of women like slaves, selling girls into marriage (after first showing the buyer their teeth, like buying a horse), subject to beatings on a whim, the lack of humanity paid to these women by those who are supposed to help them, even when they are man-handled by others. And of course, the insincerity of all of this, and the utter lack of any moral scruples of these men towards their women, as Malika notes that after buying her "family" motorbikes and other presents, they will forget their distaste towards her.

The French men in this movie are disgusting, and morally corrupt, but of a different nature and magnitude of the other males in the story. All, in all, it is the women who are the heroes and if not entirely without blame certainly they outshine the men. There is not one man who is anything but contemptible in the entire movie, and the ending provides a feel-good experience that I expect is not gender-specific. Some of the scenes in the movie are hard to watch, but its conclusion makes up for that. November 6, 2005

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