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Doing Money is slang for prostitution, and this new movie drama tells the harrowing tale of Ana, which is based on a true story, but some names have been changed.
We first see Ana, portrayed brilliantly by Anca Dumitra, talking to the police, giving them information about her situation, and then it goes back to a year earlier when, whilst inbetween cleaning jobs, she’s snatched in broad daylight, shoved into a speeding car, and taken from London to the unfamiliar (to her) Galway, in Ireland. There, she’s blackmailed into sex-trafficking. If she doesn’t do what they say, then they’ll take it out on her mother and the rest of her family – yes, they’ve done their homework as to where she lives and who she knows in the UK.
Naturally defiant to her captors, before long, she’s arrested when the brothel gets busted – which is a good thing! But it doesn’t mean she’ll get back to normality any time soon, as you will see, so don’t consider the first half of that sentence to be any sort of a spoiler.
It’s crazy how the police seem fairly powerless to do so much for the girls, so they’re kept in slavery for a ridiculously long time because they keep getting moved about.
Doing Money certainly gets across the horrors of the situation, stuck in disgusting rooms, having to go through the motions with gross, fat businessmen, and if you object, then the burly, bearded men will ensure you don’t object again… and it’s made even worse by the fact she’s had her glasses taken away so she can barely see.
Similar to dramas like Thirteen, starring Jodie Comer, this shows how this can be happening on any street in any town, and none of the residents would be any wiser.
Doing Money can be watched on the BBC iPlayer.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but you can buy the book on which this is based, on Kindle and Paperback.
Score: 8/10
Director: Lynsey Miller
Producer: Mike Dormer
Writer: Gwyneth Hughes
Cast:
Ana: Anca Dumitra
Ancuta: Cosmina Stratan
Crina: Mãlina Manovici
Dougie: Allen Leech
DC Rachel: Karen Hassan
Luca: Alec Secareanu
Sean: Tom Glynn-Carney
Declan: Turlough Convery
Ionut: Dragos Bucur
Fiona: Jamie-Lee O’Donnell
Lily: Alina Ioana Serban
Skinny: Voica Oltean
Liam: Jonathan Harden
Niamh O’Donoughue: Gwynne McElveen
Robbie: Ryan McParland
Stefan: Sergiu Costache
Arresting Officer: Mary Moulds
Previously on DVDfever:
November 4th:
Doing Money premieres tomorrow on BBC2 at 9pm and is a new BBC drama whic tells a shocking, true story about slavery in modern Britain.
It follows the story of Ana (Anca Dumitra), a young Romanian woman who is snatched in broad daylight from a London street, trafficked to Ireland and used as a sex slave in a series of pop-up brothels. Her story offers a tense and thought-provoking thriller exposing how, in modern Britain, slavery can hide in plain sight.
Doing Money is on BBC2 at 9pm and is directed by Lynsey Miller (The Boy With The Topknot).
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but you can buy the book on which this is based, on Kindle and Paperback.
Check out the trailer below:
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