An actor who was kidnapped and raped by a string of men has opened up about why she made and starred in a film about her horrific ordeal. Watch here:
Apartment 407 tells the true story of a woman who was lured to a photoshoot before being drugged and continually raped over a period of three days.
Advert
It's a shocking tale, made all the more powerful by the fact it is based on the experience of lead actor Frida Farrell.
The Swede was 23 years old when she was invited to an address in London's Harley Street for a photoshoot. She would go on to spend three days at the flat, where she was forced to drink down drugs at knifepoint and have sex with multiple men.
"When you get drugged and wake up in a different place, and you're locked in, and your freedom was taken away in such a brutal way, you think, 'There's no way of talking my way out of this with this guy now,'" Farrell told LADbible.
"So you're trying to think of other means - pleading, begging.
Advert
"I mean, hope is really the last thing that leaves you. I think all the way till, if you're having a knife to your throat, you still hope that this guy won't use it until it's used. So it was the last thing that left me, but I nearly gave up. I did."
Mercifully, Farrell's captor briefly left the door unlocked and she seized her moment to flee.
Farrell kept her ordeal secret for years, racked with feelings of shame and embarrassment, with police having essentially disregarding her story.
Advert
Even in the process of making the film, Farrell didn't let the crew know that the movie was based on her story.
Farrell said: "I didn't tell anyone, only the director and the producer - who was my producing partner.
"Nobody else on set knew, nobody. And I said to him [the director] specifically, 'Don't tell the cameraman, don't tell your first AD [assistant director], nobody needs to know because I don't want to be treated differently.'"
To make it easier for her to relive her trauma in the movie, they differentiating the plot and Farrell's character slightly, enabling her to detach herself and also making the film more bearable for viewers too.
Advert
Farrell explained: "We didn't have to show the amount of people coming into the room. The amount of men - I think you get the picture.
"You have to somehow make it a watchable thing. You know, at the end of the day it is on Amazon Prime and you want someone to eat popcorn and watch your movie, as horrible as it sounds.
"So we had to make it a terrible story where people actually would stay, and I have a lot of people tell me, 'Oh, I had to fast-forward a couple of scenes because I couldn't handle it.'"
But the movie almost never came together at all, as Farrell became totally 'overwhelmed' during post-production.
Advert
She said: "It almost became more real for me watching it. And then all the different takes, over and over, and the way they cut it. I was overwhelmed.
"We had to stop for several months, leave it. I nearly walked away from the film completely. I said, 'I can't do this, I don't ever want to see this again'. We had a nine-month break."
Now she is glad she persevered, because she has succeeded in raising awareness of sex slavery and supporting other victims.
She said: "That was the drive for the entire making of the film, writing the story, making it, cutting it, going out to film festivals, doing Q&As.
"Now I do feel more comfortable talking about it, obviously, having had the response that I've had from the film, because I have people reaching out to me every single day. Today, I have had three people already, and it's only noon.
"I'm like, wow, because now I know I did the right thing. I'm on the right path, and it is helping people, helping them to open their eyes to something that not many people want to talk about."
You can watch Apartment 407 on Amazon Prime.
Featured Image Credit: Development Hell PicturesTopics: TV and Film, Interesting, crime