"Matroesjka's" (2005) TV series

User Rating:

8.7/10   

Creators:

Guy Goossens
Mark Punt

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

5 January 2005 (Belgium)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Just dancing, they said.

Plot Keywords:

Sex Club | Brothel | Prostitution | Eastern Europe | Human Exploitation

Cast

Peter Van den Begin	...	Raymond Van Mechelen (10 episodes, 2005)
Axel Daeseleire	...	Jan Verplancke (10 episodes, 2005)
Evgeniya Khirivskaya	...	Kalinka (10 episodes, 2005)
Tom Van Dyck	...	Vincent Dockx (10 episodes, 2005)
Zemyna Asmontaite	...	Daria (10 episodes, 2005)
Manou Kersting	...	Danny Bols (10 episodes, 2005)
Indre Jaraite	...	Inesa (10 episodes, 2005)
Luk Wyns	...	Eddy Stoefs (9 episodes, 2005)
Veerle De Jonghe	...	Esther Van De Walle (9 episodes, 2005)
Ailika Kremer	...	Eva (8 episodes, 2005)
Mark Van Eeghem	...	Marc Camps / ... (8 episodes, 2005)
Lyubov Tolkalina	...	Olga (8 episodes, 2005)
Frank Aendenboom	...	John Dockx (8 episodes, 2005)
Lucas van den Eijnde	...	Nico Maes (6 episodes, 2005)
Stany Crets	...	Clem De Donder (6 episodes, 2005)
Hilde Heijnen	...	Laura Keyser (6 episodes, 2005)
Natalya Reva	...	Inga (6 episodes, 2005)
Sveta Abolenkina		(5 episodes, 2005)
Zorina Tanasova	...	Irina (5 episodes, 2005)
Saar Vandendriessche	...	Sita (5 episodes, 2005)

Also Known As:

"Matrioshki" (International: English title)
"Russian Dolls: Sex Trade" (Australia)

Runtime:

Belgium:50 min (10 episodes)

Country:

Belgium

Language:

Dutch | Flemish | English | Lithuanian | Russian

Color:

Color

Certification:

Belgium:KT | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-15

Filming Locations:

Belgium

Company:

Independent Productions

Trivia:

The Belgian makers couldn't understand the language the girls were speaking, so they had to hire some translators to verify if the girls were following the script.

Movie Connections:

Followed by "Matroesjka's 2" (2008)

Very difficult subject - and a well done series

This fine Belgian series deals with an issue that has become so common in today's Europe. Eastern European girls and women are promised a decent job in the West, but they end up as prostitutes. Girls' credulity and and poor conditions in homeland lead its victims into modern slave trade business. It will be very easy to guess where the word 'slave' has come as it did not originally mean 'slave'.

Girls who have ended up into business have no other chance than to obey their masters and this is also shown in the series. There are however some cunning girls who attempt to escape their fate, but not much is there to do. Girls also have different attitudes towards their work. Yes - there are some, like a Russian girl named Kalinka, who don't think it's eventually bad to become stripper, if they have it no way better at home. But there are also girls like Lithuanian Daria, who is totally against the business and only wants to get back home. Some girls think they have found a boyfriend in their pimps, but are unfortunately mistaken. They all realize before long that they are just used for the business like batteries and then thrown away.

I've never seen anything like this on television and it may well be my first Belgian series I ever seen. Matroesjka's category is crime, but it presents the crime from victims viewpoint. It gives a completely different view to the world of prostitution than Boogie Nights does., though both are great in their own sense. Matroesjka's does not contain moralizing overtones, for it just tells a plain story of these women. There are even found 'goodies' in the pimps too, or lesser evils anyway. Everything in Matroesjka's is very enjoyable viewing, for some of the girls are really cool when they try to rise above their inhuman conditions.