Russian Dolls: Sex Trade


Russian Dolls: Sex Trade is a Flemish drama series about a group of women from Lithuania and Russia who are taken to Belgium by a gang involved in the sex trade to work as sex slaves. The series starts in Lithuania, where the girls are chosen and where they have to sign a contract in Greek, which they cannot understand. The gang, under the lead of Ray Van Mechelen, takes the girls to Cyprus and from there they are taken to Club 69 in Belgium to work. Russian Dolls is sponsored by the Flemish Audiovisual Fund.
Russian Dolls is produced and directed by Guy Goossens and Marc Punt.
Because of explicit scenes of sex and violence, the program is not appropriate for people under 16 years of age.

General overview

Although based on the problems associated with the sex trade, the series is not so much a documentary or engaged criticism of those problems as it is a source of entertainment. However, director Marc Punt has said that it wouldn't be terrible if the series made people aware of those problems. Already, the series is used to warn women in the former Eastern Bloc of the practices associated with the sex trade.
The program was first broadcast on the Belgian channels Canal+ and VTM. After ten episodes, Russian Dolls received a viewership in excess of 1.1 million. Other countries picked up the show as well. A deal was negotiated between VTM, Independent Productions, and several foreign commercial broadcasters to make a second season. The second season finished shooting in October 2007 and aired in Belgium in 2008. Thus far, the series has twenty episodes.
The British composer David Julyan provided the musical score for the series. The theme song is "Post-Modern Sleaze" by British group Sneaker Pimps. The song from Season 2 Episode 5 playing in Bulgaria is Tazi Vecher by Sonq Nemska.

International broadcasts

The first season can be seen in the following countries: Germany, Turkey, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Finland, Sweden, Australia, Russia, Serbia, Brazil, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Montenegro, Estonia, Albania and Chile. In Portugal it airs on Fox Crime. In Turkey and Italy show airs on FX. In Mexico, the series goes out on Once TV.
The show has also included several guest roles Ludo Hellincx, Karel Deruwe, Jan Decleir, Chris Lomme, and Warre Borgmans.

Matrioshki 2, Three Years Later

Matrioshki 2 is a Belgian TV serial which was released in 2007 to follow the first TV serial Matrioshki/Matroesjka's dealing with human trafficking and most especially woman trafficking for prostitution to Europe.
The series takes place three years after the first serial, when the traffickers from the first season are released from jail and go to Thailand. Dealing this time not only with prostitution from eastern European girls on European continent, but also with traffic of young Asian girls brought back in Europe for prostitution, sometimes to help their families, it shows the mass problem of human trafficking in the world, one of the most rentable business nowadays, and reflecting the problem of south-Asian trafficking, mostly from Thailand.
Smugglers Ray Van Mechelen and Eddy Stoefs are released from jail where they were since the end of Matroesjka, three years before. They discovered then that their partner, Jan Verplancke, disappeared with the money they made to Thailand.
They go then to Thailand, but there Verplanke does not give them the money back: instead, he offers them young Thai girls. But things have changed in three years: the market has grown, and new trafficking groups want to have a place in the market.
The only things the girls have in common is that "they do that for their families".
Directed by Guy Goossens and Marc Punt.