PREMIERE.COM REVIEW (posted 06/12/03)

This one goes out to all the parents who have ever disciplined their kids with such facetious threats as "If you aren't careful, we'll sell you to the gypsies!" It just so happens that there really are parents cashing in on this deal, as Dutch duo Jascha de Wilde and cinematographer Chris Relleke chronicle in their first feature-length documentary, an affecting look at circus slavery in India, playing at New York City's Film Forum through June 24.

Smuggled mostly from Nepal in exchange for rock-bottom wages that would make a Nike executive blush, young girls (ages 6 to 19) are forced to train as ballerina daredevils in the Great Rayman Circus, a nomadic big-top extravaganza boasting more than 250 artists and 150 animals. Although circus life sounds healthier than, say, a life of prostitution in Bombay's red-light district, Barnum & Bollywood it ain't: Turning a trick for Rayman could mean riding a motorcycle in the "Globe of Death" or performing the titular "Starkiss," in which a girl spins mid-air at neck-break speeds by a rope wedged between her teeth. Toiling at a standard wage of just over $2 a month, performers can attempt to learn more perilous acrobatics, thereby earning themselves more rupees, or rather, helping them work off Mom and Dad's advance. When they aren't defying death in the ring, they're segregated like harem girls, allowed to commingle only with the night watchmen and an adorable, shopping bag-sized midget (whose feats include fitting himself into said bag). Itty-bitty Saipan becomes an appropriate segue to some of the other clown dwarves, men who admittedly long for marriage, find escape through drinking and gambling, or simply wish that God "in our next life. . . won't make us so small."

As wrist-slicingly dreary as all that is, the footage accumulated is endlessly fascinating. Some stunts, like Vinod Singh's live-goldfish-and-water-regurgitation act, are so entertaining (and, in this case, disgusting) that the film is rife with faux optimism, giving a spoonful of sugar to make the poisoned truths go down. Where the filmmakers lose balance on the thematic tightrope is in sacrificing a deeper exploration of the girls' relationships with one another (purportedly their only source of emotional survival) in favor of more screen time for supporting personalities. This scattered storytelling yields great missed opportunities: Wouldn't it have been appropriate to include interviews with the parents who gave cause to the film itself? How are the girls protected against sexual predators? Is there a caste system within the camp? Is it in anyone's interest to stop this atrocity? Heavy questions left unanswered weigh down the film's potential, but there isn't a strongman to be found.

— Aaron Hillis