Abstract
In the Philippines, prostitution is not just lucrative business – it's an industry. Hope in Heaven, by filmmaker Meredith Ralston, examines the country's sex trade and the young women it traps. Seen through the eyes of two idealistic female students and a male university professor, the film captures two years of Mila's life and the people who befriend her, the poverty and squalor she lives in, and her hope that one day a foreigner will rescue her. It is poignant and heartbreaking.