PROMINENT SOUTH AFRICAN FILMMAKER JAILED IN MIDDLE EAST
This is something that a dear friend of mine has written. She is a major South African film-maker who came to Bahrain to open a much needed film academy, only to find that things took a wrong turn and ended up in jail for absolutely nothing she has done. Please repost this anywhere you can since most of their money has been stolen from them and they need to get back on their feet. Thanks.
So much for a good, kind hearted muslim country. After reading this, I seriously want to leave this country!
And now, I leave you with her story…
PROMINENT SOUTH AFRICAN FILMMAKER JAILED IN MIDDLE EAST
What started as a dream to teach valuable filmmaking skills to Bahrainis in the Middle East, and help improve the local economy ended up in horror for 39 year-old prominent South African filmmaker, Amour Elliott-Setter. Only seven weeks after relocating with her family to the Kingdom of Bahrain in the Middle East to start a film school, Amour found herself in prison with her 20-year-old daughter, Gabrielle in what can only be described as shocking and appalling circumstances.
After being approached in South Africa in February 2007 by a local Bahrain businessman, Hejris Al’Shirawi with an offer of a business partnership in the Kingdom, Amour visited the island on two separate occasions to conclude business and finalize license arrangements with the local Ministry of Labor. She presented the Ministry with all her qualifications, course notes and a business plan for the film school, and on this basis Mr. Al’Shirawi was granted a business license to operate a film academy. Soon after her relocation to the island, Amour’s excitement turned to disappointment as the so-called business partnership did not materialize. After three failed attempts to get Mr. Al’Shirawi to sign a partnership agreement, she left the company, taking all her filming equipment with her and swiftly found a new business partner, who applied for a new working visa for her and her daughter, Gabrielle.
Amidst confusion about the cancellation of their working visas with their former would-be partner and awaiting the issuing of new working visas with their new sponsor, the mother and daughter team sought advice from various business sectors, including the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce, who all assured them that they would be safe despite their visas lapsing, due to the current Immigration Amnesty on the island. Eight hours after their visas lapsed the women were arrested and imprisoned, where they remained for seven days before being deported back to South Africa.
“Our visas expired at midnight on the 22nd August 2007, seven weeks after our relocation to the Kingdom. Earlier that day we received a phone call from the Hidd Police Station saying our previous would-be business partner wanted to meet with us at 8am on the 23rd August to “finalize” details of our migration to a new sponsor. Although feeling very nervous, we went along to the meeting, but he wasn’t at the Police Station. The Police told us we were required to appear in court, despite there being no paperwork to substantiate this. They insisted on escorting us to the courthouse in Manama. When we got there we saw our former sponsor and his English girlfriend, Angela Rencontre in the other room and were told to wait for the Prosecutor to hear our matter. 3 hours later we were still waiting and began feeling very suspicious, as the female police officer kept following us everywhere. We couldn’t even go to the toilet without her by our sides. We then telephoned our contact at the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce, who told us to go immediately to an attorney down the road, who was also a volunteer for the Human Rights Society in Bahrain. When we told police we urgently needed to see an attorney, they refused to let us go and said we were under arrest. We were then horrified to discover that a verdict had been reached by the Prosecutor in our absence!
From what we understand, our ex-sponsor pulled some strings with his friends at the Police Station, who coerced us to the courthouse. Whilst waiting around for the so-called meeting to materialize, Hejris approached the Prosecutor with fabricated stories about us supposedly stealing his editing equipment (which actually belonged to us and which we had brought with us from South Africa). We were so shocked that a fabricated lie could be presented to a Prosecutor in our absence, and that a verdict to imprison and deport us could actually have been reached without us being given the opportunity to defend ourselves or present any of our own evidence! What kind of judicial system is this? We came to this country to teach much-needed skills to their workforce and to ultimately help their economy and this is how we were being treated in return?”
Amour’s twelve-year-old son, Sebastian, was alone at her home on the north of the island in Amwaj while they were being detained and imprisoned. Their cats, which they had brought over from South Africa, were alone at home at her daughter’s villa in Hidd. The two women were in total shock as they were being transported to the Women’s Prison in Hidd. Upon arrival at the prison, Amour attempted to contact someone to inform her son what was happening and to arrange for him and the cats to be looked after. But the Prison Wardens refused to allow her to make any phone calls.
“I cannot describe to you what we went through in prison. We were not formally charged with anything, not read our rights, not given a phone call. We were told to undress completely, body-searched, made to squat naked on the floor for an agonizing length of time, and then thrown into an over-crowded prison cell with the clothes on our backs. We slept on the floor for 3 days, were never issued any bedding, soap, toilet paper, tooth paste or eating utensils. In-mates had to eat with their hands off stainless steel plates which were never washed with soap after meals, but just rinsed off under a running cold tap. My daughter was menstruating and was refused any sanitary towels by the Prison Wardens. Most of the toilets were broken and unable to flush or completely blocked. One of the in-mates banished to her own cell was dying of Hepatitis C, but still using the same toilet and bathroom facilities as all the other prisoners. Many times the prison ran out of drinking water, and the wardens delayed the issuing of more water, saying the in-mates were drinking too much water. Often the inmates at the end of the queues went without food at meal times, as there was hardly enough food to feed the 150 or so prisoners, and when food ran out people just simply went without. Four to five times a day the air-conditioners were switched off. With outside temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius, the cells became overbearingly hot and stuffy, further exacerbating the already tense atmosphere in the over-crowded facilities. We had roll call about four times a day, where prisoners were insulted, beaten, humiliated and screamed at by arrogant 18 – 23 year old Arabic prison wardens who could barely speak English. We witnessed extreme brutality and racism, and were completely helpless. The worst thing was not knowing if my son and cats were being taken care of and if we were ever going to get out!”
After begging to be allowed to have her asthma pump for 3 days and being refused, Amour eventually had a very serious and almost fatal asthma attack. As she lay on the floor struggling to breathe, Prison Wardens completely ignored her pleas for help, despite the obvious situation. Other in-mates were urging the wardens to assist her by giving her an asthma pump, to no avail. It was eventually the hysterical crying of her daughter, Gabrielle that that brought them to action, and she was rushed to hospital in the police van.
“Upon arrival at the hospital I was treated like an animal. The male doctor who examined me at the Muharraq Clinic was rude and abrupt. I begged him to give me something to help me relax, and tried to explain that my anxiety was exacerbating my asthma, but he refused. I was administered oxygen, given a bottle of medicine and returned to jail after an hour. When I was put back in the cells I begged to keep my asthma pump with me, and was again refused. Over-night I contracted gastroenteritis from the appalling conditions and lay on the floor for a further 24 hours becoming severely dehydrated. No amount of pleading from my daughter to the prison guards helped. During all of this time we had no idea how Sebastian was coping and if our cats were still alive. The next day Gabrielle managed to convince the prison guards to let me see the Prison doctor at the clinic. I was virtually carried there by my daughter. The doctor put me on an IV drip for severe dehydration, and after an hour I was thrown back in jail again.”
Amour informed the prison doctor of her anxiety about her son and animals, and the doctor appealed to the Head of Security at the jail, a woman known only as Madame Shaikha, to allow her to make a phone call to check if her son was ok and to be escorted to her home to get clean clothes and a toothbrush. They were denied their phone call, but later that night the police escorted the women to Amour’s home on Amwaj Island to get clean clothes and a toothbrush, where they immediately phoned their ex-sponsor and begged him to release them. He was extremely arrogant and told Gabrielle that he had warned them he would have them imprisoned if they didn’t “play his game” and that since they had angered him, he had gone ahead and had them thrown in jail “to teach them a lesson”. The women begged and pleaded for their release, and said they would do anything he wanted. It was at this stage that they discovered that Sebastian had been alone at home for three days, with no clue what was happening to his mother and sister.
In the meantime their ex-sponsor had leaked word to South Africa about their imprisonment, and coincidentally Gabrielle’s family found out and began making frantic phone calls to the South African Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. With very little information to go by, the family was going out of their minds with anxiety.
The next day their ex-sponsor came to see them in prison, accompanied by his English girlfriend and a supposed South African Embassy representative (Zane Lambert), whom Amour recognized as one of Mr. Al’Shirawi’s friends. The women were lectured by both the ex-sponsor and the supposed SA Embassy representative, who said that they had committed very serious crimes and faced deportation.
“Right up until this point we still had no idea why we were in prison, as there were never any charges that were explained to us, except the Judge’s explanation to us at the court that our ex-sponsor had claimed we had stolen his editing suite and wanted us deported as a result. The lapsing of our visas never seemed like an issue to us because we knew of the Immigration Amnesty and had also been reassured by many professionals that we would be safe. Hearing them telling us that we had committed one of the worst crimes by being in the country “illegally” came as a shock. The so-called SA Embassy representative told us we were now considered to be illegal immigrants and were obviously being treated as such. After being told by our ex-sponsor how influential he was on the island, and admitting to having us imprisoned,
he said he would only release us if we agreed to pay him a substantial amount of money. A story, we discovered in prison, was only too common in these parts. “Pay us or we will leave you in jail”. We were so desperate to be released, we agreed to pay him any amount of money he wanted.”Two days later the women were issued their return tickets to SA, but not before being made to sign an agreement with their former sponsor at the police station, where they were arrested. They were forced to agree to pay him the equivalent of about US$7,500. He agreed he would not have them blacklisted, and that they would be allowed to return to the country after their deportation to collect their personal belongings and continue working until they paid him back all the money they “owed” him. The agreement was that they had only three months with which to come up with the money.
A few days before their incarceration, Amour had read in a local Bahrain newspaper of an organization working to combat Human Trafficking in the Middle East. She approached them offering to volunteer her services as a filmmaker to help bring attention to the grave situation in the Middle East. She never dreamt she would end up being exposed to first-hand accounts of Human Trafficking. Whilst in South Africa, Amour had produced a short film on Human Trafficking in Africa. This short film has since been viewed around the world on various Internet websites, as well as television stations such as Skynews.
“We spent seven days speaking to prisoners and listening to their shocking stories. Most of the women imprisoned had similar stories. Recruited as teachers, engineers and professionals by recruitment agencies in Bahrain, they arrived expecting to walk into well-paid jobs. Most of these women are from India, Philippines or Bangladesh. Once collected from the airport by their sponsors, they were either informed they were being hired as housemaids or prostitutes. Many of the housemaids were then banished to tiny, filthy bedrooms and were expected to work from 4am to midnight. The local agencies retained their salaries for the first three months as commission, and they had no alternative but to be used as slaves until their situations improved. Expecting salaries of between US$1,000 and US$2,000 per month, these women ended up working for salaries of between US$100 and US$150 per month, if they were lucky! Other women were not so lucky. A 47-year-old women known only to us as “China” was recruited as a secretary. Once collected from the Bahrain airport, she was taken to a house, then blind-folded and taken to a near-by flat, where she was forced to work as a prostitute servicing local Indian and Pakistani men. At first she resisted, but was so severely beaten that she eventually surrendered and complied with her captors. Several months later she managed to escape, was taken to a police station by a Samaritan and instead of getting assistance, she was promptly jailed. Many of the women in prison were put there by their cruel sponsors, who refused to pay them their salaries and found an excuse to jail them instead.
At the time of our incarceration there were several women in prison with newborn babies. One young Indian mother who had given birth in Bahrain was apparently jailed because her baby did not have a Bahrain passport! Another Philippine mother, Marifie Remonde, who’s baby was born one month prematurely in Bahrain, was jailed immediately after giving birth because her sponsor claimed she owed her money. These babies were clearly malnutritioned and traumatized. One baby had lost a total of 4 kilograms in her first month in prison. It was common for the babies to go without their formula for up to three days, as the prison wardens stalled the issuing of their food. Another very beautiful, educated and sophisticated Russian woman, who was married to a Bahraini gentleman, was also falsely imprisoned. She was two months pregnant with her second child at the time of her incarceration and has no idea if she will ever get out before the birth of her baby.
I would say that 80 percent of the women in this prison were victims of Human Trafficking. One very sophisticated, well-educated and elegant Philippine lady, Alona Montemayor, who was working as an Estate Agent in Bahrain had been in prison for three months on false charges and had no idea if she was ever going to get out. I have read about the Human Trafficking problem in the Middle East, but never dreamt in my wildest dreams it was this bad! What shocked us was that the women kept telling us “you’re white, you will get out soon, white women never stay long in prison here”. During the 7 days of our incarceration, three white women were brought to the prison and released the following day. The first was a German tourist, who had been arrested with her boyfriend on the beach at sunset. Again, no charge, they were never read their rights and just thrown in prison. Somehow her Embassy got her out the next day. The second was an American citizen married to a Bahraini. She was innocently chatting in her car to another American friend who had just returned from Afghanistan when they were arrested and imprisoned. Her Embassy got her out the next day. The third was an English girl who worked for one of the local airlines. She had been caught drinking and driving and was out the next day after a friend had paid her fine at the traffic department.
Maria Sandra Torres Diaz was recruited by Al Faiha Manpower Services in Bahrain with promises of a fantastic income, only to be another victim of Human Trafficking and ended up in prison.
Pacita Sulifa had her passport retained by her local sponsor and jailed on false charges.
Susana Idanan did not receive her final month’s salary from her Bahraini sponsor, then jailed on false charges so her sponsor could avoid having to pay for her ticket back to the Philippines. Her family has no idea she is in jail.
Karanan Manpower Services in Bahrain recruited Imelda Daileg under false pretenses as well; she discovered she was a victim of Human Trafficking upon her arrival in Bahrain and then later jailed by her sponsor on false charges.
Porina Farina’s sponsor claimed she stole his Rolex watch, which he even offered as evidence in court! She was sentenced for 6 months on false charges, and has been in prison for longer than this.On the surface Bahrain seems like an idyllic place to live. Supposedly a God-fearing and law-abiding people, one would think that slavery and human trafficking would never happen in a Muslim country, but it does.
A hand-full of very good people came through for us, and if it weren’t for them, we would still be in jail. It is my sincere intention to expose these human atrocities and assist these women in getting out of prison and being reunited with their families.
I truly believe that the man who sponsored us into the country had every intention of using us for Human Trafficking. I might be wrong, but Hejris Al’Shirawi had no intention of securing a business partnership with me, but intended to force us to be employees of his company, whilst claiming ownership of filming equipment owned by my family which is valued at over R200,000. How do I know this? I think his actions all speak for themselves. After we initially left his company he withheld our passports and only agreed to return them if we paid him a substantial amount of money. The amount of money he insisted on kept escalating the more entwined we became in the system until we were so desperate we agreed to his unreasonable demands. During our incarceration Mr Al’Shirawi had the cheek to contact people we know in South Africa, bad-mouthing us and making us out to be criminalsI Never once did he admit to anyone he contacted that he was responsible for our imprisonment, but made himself out to be the Hero and claimed we tried to take advantage of him! I fear he will try to approach more filmmakers in South Africa, as he now has a registered film academy in Bahrain and no qualified teachers. I would hate any other women to be approached by him, conned and forced to go through what we went through! This man should be blacklisted from ever entering our country again.
Human Trafficking must be stopped! Slavery must be abolished. Human Beings should have the freedom to choose their realities, and not be forced into hostage situations where they are used as mules, prostitutes, slaves and punch-bags for sick and twisted people! Human Trafficking is rife in Bahrain, and many, many influential people in the country may be involved. Please join us in this campaign to abolish Human Trafficking and do whatever you can to pass this email around the world to all your contacts. The more people who know about this, the better. Perhaps a large amount of people can put pressure on the Bahrain government to put elements in place geared for combating this problem. At this point in time the problem is conveniently being ignored by their government, in fact, I’d even go as far as saying that the problem is being encouraged by the government!
My daughter and I are currently documenting our experience in prison. However, we arrived back in South Africa with a few clothes and all our possessions are still in Bahrain, including our two precious cats and all our filming equipment. We have been advised by people working in High Security in Saudi Arabia NOT to return to the country, as our lives would be put into serious danger, given what we now know about Human Trafficking in Bahrain. A few friends living in Bahrain have offered to help us get our possessions back and we hope to raise enough funds to have everything shipped back to South Africa, including our cats. We will not stop campaigning until Human Trafficking is abolished and I ask that you join us in this fight in whatever small way you can.
Amour Elliott-Setter
FILMMAKER
Email: amour_setter@yahoo.ca
Mobile: (+27) 78 591 2044APPEAL FOR ASSISTANCE by Michèle Schiess:
Amour and I have been friends and colleagues for over a decade. I received an sms the night before as they were boarding the plane in Bahrain, and collected them from the airport the following morning. Amour and her two children arrived in South Africa very traumatized – with only a few clothes and nothing else. They were taken straight from prison, allowed a few minutes to pack and taken to the airport for deportation. All their worldly possessions, including all of Amour’s business material and equipment (and their two cats) are in Bahrain and their situation is dire. They are in a catch 22, and asking for outside help is the only option right now. They are in crisis and need immediate financial help to start over. I appeal to each of you to donate what you can as a once off, in order for them to subsist whilst starting to re-build their lives in South Africa again.
Thank you in advance for opening your hearts to assist this family in need.
Please deposit donations into Gabrielle’s account:
Account holder : G. ELLIOT
Bank : ABSA BANK
Branch & code : PORT ALFRED
Account number : 910 442 7680
Type : SAVINGS
Reference : RELIEF
Swift Code : ABSA ZAJJKind regards,
Michele Schiess
Filmmaker,
Johannesburg, South Africa
Tel: (+27) 11 464 3609
Mobile: (+27) 72 63 15 409
Email: sing4life@imaginet.co.za
I urge anyone who reads this to at least post it somewhere else if they are not able to donate anything.
Thank you
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She needs to see if the South African Embassy in Bahrain can file a formal complaint with the government and possibly take action against the swindler who do this to her.
I have just written a letter and forwarded to those concerned and involved. This is definitely alarming.
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This is a very sad story indeed; however, it does have quite a number of contradictions that worry me, further, it is a one-sided account with no attempt given to reach the other side to provide a full report on what actually transpired.
As a concerned citizen, I shall look into these allegations, but until then, I would really hesitate to contribute anything, be that an opinion or money but keeping my mind and options open until all the facts are known.
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After viewing the other post is appears we have been duped.
I must admit I was intrigued.
Having Google’d this woman and read everything I could find on her (its taken me all day)and read all the blog entries on various websites and also her personal blog entries.. What do we find? A self proclaimed international film maker.. What a load of twaddle. She is an absolute unknown! Nothing else about her ANYWHERE other than from her own pen! I am amazed at this woman’s obvious efforts to ‘spin doctor’ herself. And she certainly did a good job.
My conclusion? She obviously got caught up in her own web of deception. What a sick con artist! It certainly sounds like she needs URGENT professional psychiatric help. So do her supporters. Her personal writings smack of schizophrenia and delusions of grandeur. But then she seems to live on the edge of reality anyway so one shouldn’t be surprised.
What a pity she has tarnished the name of hard working and decent South Africans here in Bahrain and blackened the name of a well intentioned but obviously naive Bahraini. HA! There’s probably more than one naive Bahraini! Busaf my friend.. think!! And she also dragged her poor children along this road of self deception.
But then unfortunately this is life. One gets con-artists worldwide from all nationalities. The devil always comes in lambs or sheep clothing. But a very good lesson is to be learnt here: check people’s credentials before going into business with them!
Lastly – She needs to be very careful, as she may just find herself on the wrong side of Bahrain law again! Sounds very much like COUNTRY SLANDER to me. Any legal buffs out there?
Thanks Mahmood.
By the way, collecting money for their cause?? Sounds like another con to me. As far as I know – legally – one needs permission from a government department in any country (possibly Dept. of Social Welfare Services) to collect money. They would issue a ‘charity number’ to make the collection legal.
Just because some people are naive to believe that others are just as well intentioned doesn’t mean that they are “sick” and need “psychiatric help.” Hejris did a mistake which he now learned from, so did we. It happens.
My apologies to you Esra. I was actually not directing my comments to anyone from Bahrain, least of all Mr Sharawi or yourselves. But she does have other supporters/friends on the internet and back in her home country. Thats who I was refering to.
They need to examine the facts that are available to us all and make a decision for themselves whether they were duped by her beautifully worded manipulations or not. I do suggest however that there are many people she has left in her wake who regret the day they met. her.
I do feel its a pity that she has chosen to use the unfortunate circumstance of other women in Hidd prison as a (to use Mohmoods words) “red herring and for garnering more sympathy for fleecing mugs out of their hard earned cash, especially as the post referred to provides bank accounts in which she is the legal signatory.” That fact in itself speaks volumes to me.
@ Wendy: I realize how this topic must irritate you, but also remember that at the time I thought I was helping a friend, I had not read the other post until now and will talk to her again before thinking of standing up for her. We’ll just wait and see until the full facts are out.
Wendy, my dear, you speak so intimately of me, as if you actually know me! I wonder if you are not actually Hejris’s girlfriend, Angie, in disguise, or perhaps a “close friend”. As for the truth of what went down, you are welcome to email me and I will gladly give you ALL the substantiating evidence you require to make an INFORMED decision. Busac is a friend, he came to the official opening of the film academy in Hidd, and I have sent him all the substantiating evidence to back up everyting we have said. I did not ask Busac to publish my story, he was sent a private email which he chose to publish.
Mideast Youth have also further contacted me saying they were advised by the legal department to distance themselves from the story, as it may compromise them legally. You can continue your slandering, you do not know me from a bar of soap and yet speak as though you know me very well! For the record, my email address is amour_setter@yahoo.ca. Please feel free to contact me and I will give you any information you require.
Hi Amour, thanks for stopping by,
It was actually friends who advised us to stay away for the sake of not getting in the midst of a legal struggle which could also endanger us as well. A lot of us are still unaware of what happened, and to support one side or the other means either parties can claim that we’ve committed libel for damaging their reputations. We would just like to provide the stories for all to see so that each person has enough resources to come to their own conclusions.
Since we already shared Herjis’s report, it would only be fair to fully share yours as well, so that is what we are proposing.
That’s true, I chose to publish her story here, not her. Whatever the case may be, she’s still a good friend of mine who I choose to help out and I’d appreciate the bad-mouthing to stop. Thank you.
Ah, sorry, I misunderstood the mission of this site. I naively thought that it is to champion human rights and youth issues and culture rather than a platform used for personal motives.
I stand corrected, even though I did not “bad mouth” anyone but did an honest investigation which resulted in exposing a fraud.
I don’t understand, whose personal motives are we using this site for?
Which suggests that whoever is Busac is, the issue was highlighted on this site is simply due to the personal relationship between the two persons rather than for the good of the tenets of the site.
@Mahmood: I chose to write it here because I saw it as a violation of human rights, and I have seen several other campaigns helping other people in their time of need, I had no reason to think otherwise until I read the follow-up posted by Esra’a highlighting your investigation. Me knowing her is a factor that can only be considered because I would not know of this case if I hadn’t known her. There is no personal motive or personal gain whatsoever and I certainly would not use this site as a platform to serve my personal life. Does that clear up anything?
And by the way, I was not talking about you when I said I’d appreciate the bad-mouthing to stop.
Busac, likewise my response was not an attack on you but an attempt to distinguish what should be regarded as human rights championing and a simple business dispute.
She, knowing what kind of reaction she might get from you and other platform, successfully obfuscated the facts by intertwining the completely unsubstantiated “plight” of her jailhouse colleagues.
I would urge you – considering the popularity of this website and its reach – to evaluate things better before making something out of them. Due to your own error of judgement you portrayed the whole shenanigan as “Bad Bahrain” against “Good fantastic honest world renowned simple and naive Amor.”
Time to go beyond this experience and learn from it Busac, but when you say things like:
and
suggests that you are not ready to learn or worse are just acting in a reactionary manner and taking things personally.
What you should do is acknowledge your mistake, acknowledge the facts presented and then as a human rights defender distance yourself from the source of the dispute so you can gain back your credibility.
You should also offer a complete apology to the wronged person in writing as an addendum to your original and follow-up topics and offer links to the investigation for those who are interested enough to follow the issue up.
Does that clear up anything?
I did acknowledge the fact that I was wrong, I wrote a comment on the follow-up article saying that I should apologize to Mr Hejris for posting an article without fully checking the other side of the story. And admitted, I haven’t yet. My comments here are not excuses to make things right, rather to show you my position when I first posted this. I am new to youth activism and I have much to learn, I have never tried to hide it or deny it. Happy?
I have been in the film industry for 28 years in South Africa. I have been on various governing boards of a number of platforms, including the SABC and I take exception to the opening statement calling Amour Setter a “major South African film-maker”
After a week of checking her out with various agencies in SA we have found her claims to be vastly economical with the truth. A simple check with the ASA will confirm that she has had very little to do with advertising, be it directional or producing… contrary to her claim that “Amour has since Produced and Directed many local and international TV Commercials, Corporate & Music Videos and Documentaries.”
However, she is known to be frugal about her payments to her service providers and has a reputation for being a trifle over exuberant about her experience.
Of the four people I have asked to research her, none have a decent word to say.
So I would take this entire story she has posted everywhere with a pinch of salt and more than little irony, considering where she has left some people financially.
Did you?
I’m almost always happy, especially when people are given their due.
I think YOU will be much happier and less defensive once you wrap this up with honour. That will happen a lot sooner once you publish a new story offering your unmitigated apology to Hijris and the readers of your site.
The entire saga regarding Amour’s “rich heritage” in the SA film industry should be laid to rest when reading her “biography” on her own website.
It reads: in part.. “Amour Elliott-Setter, a Contemporary Dancer and Actor by training, became involved in video in ’85 while practicing as a freelance photo-journalist in the Eastern Cape.”
On her current MySpace site she claims to be 39 years old… yet in 1985, after a dancing/acting career and engaged in “photo journalism” she “became involved” with video. At 12 years old!
Extraordinary!
This is getting ever more interesting! Thanks for digging these simple facts up Johann. Quite entertaining too
This was never about “honour”, all I’m doing is telling you the reason I posted this. My position has changed since I read the follow-up and I do owe Mr Hijris an apology for not thoroughly checking with him first. The reason I seemed to be over-defensive is that a small accustation like
can really blow things out of proportion. I did not write it here only because I know her. I felt it was right to do so at the time which was an error in my judgement. That is all I am trying to say.
Fair enough. Now print a clear apology to Hijris.
thanks for all the feed back. not all of it accurate or good, but anyway.
i am amors daughter gaby. i have alredy repied on mamoods den and this is my finaly say.
it is not all as it seems. I was there with my mom so I know better than anyone what went down.
she was completely honest in her article. she was telling her experience to the world so that no one else would have to go through what we have just been through. I heard those other girls stories too and it sickened me what was going on. that is the real point here- NOT a personal attack!she is not a con artist and she is most definately an international filmmaker. If any of you have even seen her CV the proof is all there. we also have all the documents and witnesses needed to back our story up. Yes amor has made her fair share of human mistakes in her life,but so have all of us.
she is not as you put her out to be. my mother is loyal, kind and caring. all her decisions have been based on what she thought was best for her family.
we all have our skeletons hiding in our closets…but to go and dig up even more and paste it publicly is disgusting. I am also sadened by the lies told about me by hejris. he never agreed to give me 50 percent of the modeling agencies profit. I infact did not work for him and told him so before we left for bahrain.
not many of you(if any) know me or my family so you have no right to say the awful things that you have.
If anyone want to call and know the truth- 083 940 3405.
you can also email me : gaby_elliott@hotmail.com
i look forward to hear what you have to say and i would like to take the opportunity to set the record straight.
ciao
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Hahahahhah You got whats coming to you, u have walked all over people for a long time and now you got what you deserve.
Hello Gaby,
as we all know there are always two sides of the coin. Also you are right- no one knows it better than you because you were involved directly.
However, after reading through some of the postings also on other websites and lacking of being able to say what is true or not I think your mom made some fundamental mistake:
In the ME countries, we are only guests and there are not yet
very democratic structures established here. So if you are here on someones work visa, you don’t want to mess up with this person at all. Rather do the job you are required to do and after you have your proper visa, earned your benefits, gained a good business reputation you go or continue or reorientate.
Also, it must be always assured that when you are in these countries, you are financially independent, otherwise you are anyway without chances when you get in trouble here.
I am feeling generally sorry that this JV did not worked out because making films brings young people to think open minded and independently and that is what probably is what both parties wanted/ should have aimed at and what is an enrichment of any society on this planet.
I really felt compelled to add my comments to this site. Firstly, I met Amour almost a year ago when she returned to SA. At the time I didn’t really know all the facts except that she had a bad experience in the Middle East and that she had been jailed. I didn’t push for more info as I didn’t really know her personally. I signed up to her film school as a student. I did not really know what to expect but went to her classes with an open mind. Her course was fantastic. I learned more in the 6 weeks that I attended her part-time course than I did in a full year studying film at a university here in SA. She gave of her time so unselfishly and helped me complete my script, even long after the course was finished. She often lets us know of industry jobs going and she has even personally arranged a few job interviews for me. My personal experience of her over the last year is that she is truly a remarkable lady with a deep passion for the craft of filmmaking. And very knowledgable at that. I came to know of these sites after a student was informed by someone to check out this and Mahmood’s Den, who then let everyone else know about it. Knowing Amour as I do and having only experienced her in the most professional way, I contacted her and asked her about these sites. She gave me the links and encouraged me to visit them and form my own opinions. I consider myself to be an intelligent guy and from what I can see for myself, this is definitely a case of a bunch of vindictive people ganging up against someone (in this case, Amour). While she might have been naive and not got a contract signed with this guy she was meant to go into business with, I don’t think it would actually have made any difference. This is not the first story like this I have heard about happening in the Middle East, that’s for sure! It is very easy for people to go onto a site like this (and Mahmood’s site) and bad mouth someone without actually identifying themselves. (Perhaps if they had put their full names and contact numbers their stories might have been believeable; the only one that put their contact details was Amour!) What saddens me is how readily people actually believe the garbage they read these days. I know for a fact that Amour is trying to put this behind her and get on with her life. When I spoke with her about this I did not pick up any bitterness in her. She is open and pragmatic about it, but she is focusing on her future and for that I have great admiration for her. She is still involved in producing short films that bring awareness to social issues in society and I have had the good fortune of seeing one of her scripts she has worked on for Human Trafficking. I also saw a short film she produced on Human Trafficking at the beginning of 2007 and it is a great piece of work. As I understand it she financed the production herself and its been viewed all around the world via myspace and youtube. Plus Skynews I think. There were 3 students in my group that couldn’t afford to pay the fees for the course and Amour sponsored them as she believed they had talent. Does that sound like an evil con-artist who just wants to screw everyone over? Anyway my point is that you stipulate ABSOLUTELY NO HATE SPEECH OR DEFAMATION WILL BE TOLERATED yet you thought nothing to rip this woman to pieces on your site! A total contradiction of your terms and conditions. Did you think further into the future when you ripped her to pieces? Did you think that this site of yours would always be there for people to read? Even though these are just people’s opinions, they are none the less very defamatory and I’m sorry to say: Hate Speech!
I definitely think Amour should sue your organisation for defamation and printing hate speech about her on your public site. I know I would!
I am disgusted by what I have read here. She has kept her chin up and she is doing a superb job. I value her support and contributions to my future film career and I find her to be a caring, sincere and warm person. I also totally believe her story about what she went through in jail.
I hope she sues the pants off you guys!
David Karl
Cape Town, South Africa
Thank you David for your comment and we appreciate diverse opinions and commend your curiosity that led you to make a sound judgment.
Oh great, now she is basically going to send an army of her misguided students simply because we provided a PERSONAL opinion about a PERSONAL matter that she has to get over.
The biggest mistake I ever did was consider helping this idiot of a person, Amour, or whatever she wants to call herself. If you remember, the first post written about her here was promotional. She abused this advantage and began spamming my personal e-mail address with ridiculous requests, including one having to do with money, and involving me in a legal battle that wasn’t even successful. I posted this follow-up after I received legal information from both sides and formed my personal opinion concerning the matter. Suddenly, Amour’s life is over, a year later and she is still demanding some kind of an apology, which she has never earned.
If she was half as mature, experienced, and trained as she boasts to be, she would be old enough to solve HER OWN problems with the person solely responsible, instead of forcefully involving people half her age.
Get a life, Daivd and Amour, what film school are you in if the only thing you are doing is listening to your teacher’s request at fixing her stupid reputation, ON THE INTERNET of all places? Stay in South Africa if you don’t want to be “sponsored” anywhere else at your own damned risk.
I would sue her right back for her abusive personality, weird financial requests, and being generally annoying, and I’d sue you for spamming our site too! Because apparently you idiots are willing to sue anything in existence simply because of an opinion, so if any lawyer is retarded enough to even consider your case, I’m sure they would be retarded enough to consider mine. Any good lawyer, however, would shrug your case off as an embarrasment.
Stop writing here if you hate the Middle East so much. And for once, study some FILM in your sorry excuse for a course. Whining incessantly on the internet will not boost your film career, nor will your aliases (Amour! What the hell is your name anyways? Get out of our lives already.)
For the record, any comment from now on having to do with this person and her colleagues will be deleted without question. I made it perfectly clear that we want nothing to do with this untrustworthy person, her abusive friends, and their supposed and personal “legal” threats (against a personal opinion on a personal website, via mere comments; how convincing.) She is weird, psychologically insane, incredibly suspicious, and rude, judging from my own communication and experience with her. If you continue to involve people who have nothing to do with this; you must be losers with no life, and failures with no real film career, which at this point has become quite obvious. I have reached a point where I almost pity her existence, for all the e-mails and comments we continue to receive even a year later, requesting the removal of this post, “or else.” I will not cave in to any of your pathetic threats, the situation entirely is simply laughable.
Stop spamming this site for your self-serving, racist, and utterly boring purposes. Stop e-mailing us. And once you do that, consider finding a real film school to attend, one with actual standards. Getting a life is also strongly encouraged.
Good riddance!