Girl Model

In a studio in the midst of a Siberian winter, hundreds of emaciated teenage girls stand in line in their bathing suits, waiting for a shot at superstardom. An American model scout named Ashley works there with a Russian agency and she is looking for fresh faces for the Japanese market. GIRL MODEL is a harrowing exposé of the exploitation of very young Russian girls looking to escape poverty and travel the world. Ashley is an articulate former model who continues to recruit girls despite her serious reservations about the whole business. Nadya is a 13-year-old hopeful, an unusual child who thinks that true human beauty is the beauty of the soul. When Nadya is selected to travel to Tokyo for exploratory casting sessions, she and her family are thrilled. But Nadya's happiness is short-lived. As she struggles to get by on her own in the strange city, Nadya soon finds her modeling contract is scarcely worth the paper it's printed on. This is an eye-opening story of sophisticated people profiting from naiveté. (In English, Japanese, and Russian with subtitles). –B.B.