Sweet Karma

Human trafficking is a fairly big problem in terms of international crime, particularly when the trafficking is done to fuel the sex industry. Although human trafficking takes place all over the world, there were reports in the last five or so years about the scale of the problem in Toronto and it is from these that first-time director Andrew Thomas Hunt took his inspiration. The result is Sweet Karma, a film that begins entirely in Russian (or possibly Romanian, I'm not exactly sure) which shows several girls, including Anna Balint paying a great deal of money to a woman who will arrange their transport to Canada where they will become housemaids.

Following the long flight, they soon discovered that they are not going to become housemaids as they are scrutinised for their physical appearance, the state of their pubic hair and talk to pole dance. Their long trip has landed them in the grip of a gang running a string of pole dancing clubs, strip joints and prostitution rackets.

Back home, Anna's sister Karma reads a report of an unidentified body being found in the woods around Toronto after months of not hearing a single word from Anna. As she is mute, Karma can't exactly go to the police and explain what has happened so decided to follow in her sister's footsteps, go to the same gang, buying the same papers and travelling to the same area in Toronto. You know exactly what her game is when, after obtaining the work permit, she sticks a knife in the woman's head and flies to America's northerly neighbour. When the cabbie asks where she wants to go, she shows a photo of the apartment building in which Anna stayed on arrival and, having worked out the lie of the land, begins to frequent the sleazy areas where the girls work and the gangsters are most prominent.

Ingratiating herself with members of a pole dancing club, she gets a gig due to her physical attributes, uninhibited nature and aptitude on the stage. With one eye on the burly men in suits, she works out who is who and where to begin her violent revenge spree. Just as she is a dab hand in the lap dancing club, she is also extremely handy with a knife, pencil or whatever else she can lay her hands on in order to take down the mobsters one by one.


As a debut feature, Sweet Karma looks a little cheap and amateurish with plenty of handheld camerawork, slightly dodgy lighting and some overacting by the gangsters. The one bright spot in the film is Shera Bechard, a model turned actress who gives an immensely powerful and layered performance as the mute vengeance killer who uses her looks to great effect, disguising the fact that she has a heart of a stone cold killer.

There have been very few recent 'femme-revenge' films, with Kill Bill and Nikita standing out from the last 20 years. The heyday was really in the 1970s with a spate of blaxploitation films starring Pam Grier (Foxy Brown, Coffy and Sheba, Baby) although the one that this perhaps as most in common with is Abel Ferrera's 1981 thriller Ms. 45 in which the protagonist is mute and has a way with weapons, particularly the titular 45 calibre pistol.

Despite its technical deficiencies and obvious low budget, this is an engaging and accomplished thriller that is a great throwback to the 1970s and early '80s era of revenge driven women who are strong, independent characters who, like Karma, kick ass and deliver their own form of justice.

The Disc

The Picture
Quite clearly shot digitally, this has both good and bad moments depending on the location, light sources and how quickly the actors move. You do get some smearing in the faster and more action oriented scenes and, when it is very dark or very light, the level of clarity drops out notably. Normally this would be a reason for complaint but the unintentional aesthetics evoke the films of 30 odd years ago.

The Sound
The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is pretty good and just has the edge over the 2.0 option which, although they both do a great job with their dialogue, when it comes to the music in the clubs and some of the scored music that employs the rear channels, it has found a little wanting. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the stereo option and normally I would find such music emanating from behind me a little distracting but in this case it works and I preferred the 5.1 mix.


Final Thoughts
Sweet Karma is a really interesting film that should have had more extra features than this completely vanilla disc (a trailer notwithstanding) provided that, if you like your female revenge movies gritty, bloody and with a sting in the tail, you will find much to like about Andrew Thomas Hunt's feature debut.