Customer Reviews

The Railroad All Stars ( Estrellas de La Línea ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]

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"The Railroad All Stars" ("Estrellas de La Línea") is a unique documentary film about a group of sex-workers living in Guatemala City. "The Railroad" ("La Línea") actually refers to the slums around the railroad track that runs through the city, a district where they engage in the trade.

The camera follows the movement of "The Railroad All Stars," all sex-worker soccer team that is formed to draw the attention from the society to their hardships of life as they are perpetually harassed, attacked and even killed. The team is finally given a chance to play a soccer game against high school students, but the scandalized authority (who didn't know that the players of Railroad All Stars are sex-workers) expels the team from the association. Undaunted, the team finds a financial backer and a chance to play a match, this time against an all-female police officer team.

The film also includes the interviews with the sex-workers who reveal their memories before they became prostitutes. Not surprisingly most of them are painful ones. Some interviewees have agreed to talk about their children and partners. In this way the documentary consists partly of personal views on life, which I find are often moving. But if you are looking for insightful commentaries on their social status, or the social context of the topic, you will be disappointed. The film refuses to give answer to some questions you might naturally have, like "Are they the only sex-workers in the city?" and so on.

Still some part of the film manages to show us how hard the life can be there at La Línea through the words of interviewees and the images of the place there. The end credit also makes us think as it is revealed what happened to each member of the team. Probably that is the most painful part of "Railroad All Stars."