“Apartment 407” is not an easy film to watch. Directed by Rudolf Buitendach, the movie tells the story of Isobel, an average middle-class mother who is enticed into a photo shoot by a stranger in a coffee shop. Thus begins a living nightmare: drugged, captured, and raped repeatedly, Isobel’s harrowing escape from sexual slavery is a gruesome tale of sadism and survival. And the scariest part? It’s all based on star Frida Farrell’s real life experience.
At the age of 24, Farrell was in fact hired for what appeared to be a legitimate photo shoot in London. The next day, she returned for a follow-up session for which she would receive £7,000. It was then that she was drugged and held against her will in a basement for three days. During that time she was forced to have sex with several men, including her captor. It was a small mistake made by her captor — leaving a door unlocked for just a moment — that allowed her to escape.
The human trafficking industry pulls in an estimated $99 billion each year, according to Equality Now, a non-governmental organiztion dedicated to promoting human rights for women and girls. Nearly 25 million men, women, and children have been victims of human trafficking around the globe, according to 2017 statistics from the International Labor Organization (ILO). Nineteen percent of those victims (about 4.8 million) were sexually exploited.
Farrell wrote, produced, and starred in “Apartment 407” in the hopes of raising awareness of this issue and as a warning to women who could potentially fall victims to these crimes. Reliving her traumatic experiences through the film was by no means an easy experience, although she noted she has come out the other end immensely grateful for the support she’s received from friends, family, and strangers alike.
