What Have They Done to Your Daughters?

A fifteen year old girl is found hanged in a warehouse. The tip off is anonymous. The prosecutor Vittoria Stori takes the case and it is clear at once that this is not a suicide. A notebook from the girl's schoolbag leads to a list: there is an operation in the city taking young girls to clients, and among the clients are well known names. As the investigation advances the witnesses go quiet, records disappear, and somebody on a motorcycle in a black helmet removes the witnesses one at a time. Massimo Dallamano directs. Giovanna Ralli, Claudio Cassinelli, Mario Adorf and Franco Fabrizi are in the cast. It is an Italian production. The film is counted as a follow up to an earlier schoolgirl murder film by the same director; there is no shared story but the subject and the tone connect. The narrative joins the police procedural to the Italian thriller; both the routine of an investigation and the masked killer are used. The matter it treats is protection; the adults who are named are not punished and the file is closed. The film shows the exploitation of the young directly and it is uncomfortable. The chases were shot in real traffic and the Rome of the period looks like documentary. The woman prosecutor departs from the usual male centred shape of the genre. The music is by Stelvio Cipriani and carries the pace of the narrative. The ending brings no justice and lays the blame on the system. Its limit is content; the subject is heavy, the violence explicit, and some scenes exploitative. Who it is for: viewers who like seventies Italian thrillers. Who it is not for: it is uncomfortable, harsh, and the ending dark.