CHAPTER 1 -

I pulled up into the cottage driveway, still reeling from a panic attack. I slowly got out of the car hoping nobody would realize how freaked out I was.

"Hi. Prega Govender, Sunday Times. Pleased to meet you."

He stuck out his hand and I inched forward to greet him, still feeling cautious.

"Hi. Come on in and take a seat" I said. We walked into the sparsely furnished cottage we were staying in on my friend's plot and I gestured for him and his photographer to sit.

"So" said Prega, "you've had quite an ordeal, haven't you?"

"Yes, it's been quite hectic".

"Well, tell me exactly what happened" he said.

I took a deep breath. This was not going to take 5 minutes, and I'd hoped they didn't have another appointment to rush off to.

"Where do I start?" I asked.

"Well, let's start at the beginning. Where did you meet this guy?" said Prega.

I was determined to tell my story as honestly as possible and perhaps prevent the same thing happening to other South African filmmakers.

 

The weather was mild that February morning in 2007. I decided to have a quick cup of tea out by the pool before heading to the office. As I sat there quietly enjoying the solitude, my mobile phone rang. An English woman introduced herself to me as Gaenor and asked if I would be interested in speaking with a businessman from the Middle East, who was looking for companies wanting to expand. Naturally I was curious, and we set up a meeting for later that day.Gaenor and Hejris arrived at my office at noon. Hejris was nothing I had expected from our brief conversation on the phone. He was short, round and had dark, pigmented skin. He was dressed in jeans and a pink shirt. Gaenor was a short English girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes. She too was wearing jeans and a casual shirt. My secretary served us tea in the reception room and Hejris began telling me about his company in the Middle East. I'd never heard of Bahrain, so found all his stories very interesting and educational. He told me he had the biggest Event Management and Modeling company on the island, which by now was already 8 years old. I learned from him that the country's economy was booming and he was hungry for expansion. With a population exceeding 750,000 people, I could see how there could be a great deal of work. He appeared ambitious and this piqued my curiosity even more. Hejris invited me to visit the island (at my own expense, of course) to explore the business opportunity and we adjourned our two hour long meeting. My head started reeling.

 

Four weeks later I arrived in Bahrain and was arrested by the heat and humidity. I had never been in the desert before, so this was a very new and exciting experience for me. During the preceding week I had spoken with Hejris's PA, Angela, who had advised me to bring something warm to wear for the evenings. I was greeted at the airport by both Hejris and Angela and was quite shocked to discover that she was actually Hejris's girlfriend, not just his PA.

 

Dark haired and elegant, Angela was softly spoken and well dressed. A good first impression, I thought at the time. They immediately took me to the Gulf Hotel for a drink and I was exposed to the brighter side of Bahrain within my first hour. Hejris could not stop telling me what a fantastic country it was and how incredibly happy and successful they were. He spoke non-stop about the financial potential for starting a film company and film academy. He boasted about his good reputation on the island, and said that he had so much work he was forced to turn some away at times. I was impressed. The Gulf Hotel was lively and teeming with ex-pats and locals, who all seemed to be having the time of their lives. A far cry from the picture the media painted. Eventually the jet-lag caught up with me and I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and asked to be taken home. When we reached their home I was a little shocked to discover that the picture I had in my mind of the house they lived in was exactly the opposite. The paint on the outside of the house was peeling and the garden was completely overgrown. Garbage and rubble lay in one part of the garden and the front wooden gate was hanging on its hinges. The furniture clashed and screamed at me when I first entered the house and nothing matched. The alarm bell should have rung, but at that point I was completely exhausted and just wanted to pass out in a comfortable bed.

 

The week I spent in Bahrain consisted mainly of lengthy meetings, where we discussed the formation of a film academy. When he approached me in South Africa the previous month, I had advised Hejris that a film academy should precede a film production company as it made more sense to develop a local industry rather than constantly importing foreign filmmakers from England, which I discovered was fairly costly. My film academy in South Africa had already been established for over a year and was proving to be successful. I drew from my experiences and drafted a business plan, which I presented to a gentleman at the Ministry of Labor known only to me as Ahmed and told him of my plans to grow the local economy through a much-needed film academy. He seemed impressed and supported the idea whole-heartedly. Later Hejris would claim my proposal as his idea and actually ended up using it word for word to convince people of his business savvy. The week flashed by so quickly and before I knew it I was on my way back home again. Swept away by the excitement of a new challenge, I boarded the plane back to South Africa with newfound vigor.

 

It was at this point that I began discussing the project with my friend, Rob, a fellow filmmaker who lived in Los Angeles. Rob and I communicated regularly and he knew of my desire to make another short film about Human Trafficking. I'd produced a short film a few months previously with a local South African award-winning director, which had been viewed by people around the world via the internet and also on television stations & channels such as Sky News.

 

Pre production on a commercial I was producing in South Africa at that time was almost complete and we launched into our film shoot. The client had chosen Oliver Tambo International Airport as the location, which in itself posed huge challenges. The only way around the many challenges was to film through the night. I had invited my students to attend the film shoot so they could observe and learn. For many of them it was the first time they had actually been on a film set. Things moved slowly. The film extras that my producer had booked were very B grade and was told that the extras casting agency had sent all the wrong people. My anxieties grew as things became very tense on set as a result of this. We ended up wasting so much time initially trying to find other extras at such late notice and then eventually trying to work with what we had. I never dreamt that something as insignificant as being sent the wrong extras for a film shoot could end up having such a negative impact on my life, as I shall reveal later in the story.

 

In the months that followed I submitted my business plan, my qualifications and all my course notes to the Ministry of Labor in Bahrain. During my second visit to the island in April, Hejris showed me his office shell at the Bahrain Business Incubation Centre in Hidd, and told me of his plans to refurbish. The plans sounded very impressive. The week was once again filled with very lengthy meetings, where we discussed all the text for the website which I was having designed in South Africa. When I raised the subject of my friend Rob joining us, Hejris seemed to have changed his mind, saying he didn't want too many people involved in the business and that Rob should only be involved in teaching filmmaking, adding that he could maybe freelance to us as a director if and when projects came up. I felt very disappointed, as I had really felt the need to have someone "on my side" because I did feel that I was at a distinct disadvantage being a single Caucasian female going into business with an Arab male in a patriarchal Muslim country. The more I tried to push, the more Hejris side-stepped the issue at hand. This was very different from what we had discussed previously and I knew Rob would be disappointed, but what could I do? I felt sad because I had been looking forward to the possibility of having an ally. This, I later realized, was to become Hejris's modus operandi. The goal posts kept moving with monotonous regularity.

 

Eager to meet some ex-pats, I had arranged to attend a new friend's birthday party at the Diplomat Radissons Hotel in Bahrain during my second visit to the island. Quite prepared to catch a cab there from Hejris's house in Manama, I was forced to wait for over an hour to be taken personally by Hejris, who convinced me that a cab was much too costly. I later realized this was just another way he was trying to control me. I invited Hejris and Angela to join the party, but Hejris declined immediately when he realized he was outnumbered by ex-pats. I remember telling my new friend, (who's birthday it was) that I found Hejris's behavior to be quite strange. It was during this week's visit to Bahrain that I drafted our second contract. The first contract had now become null and void, since Hejris had completely moved the goal posts. Initially we were going to incorporate the film school into his current business. By the time I came over for my second visit he had decided against me joining his existing company, and wanted to form a completely separate company for the film school. I recall telling my friend during that week in Bahrain that I had wanted to get Hejris to sign the contract before I left, but Hejris had managed to smooth talk his way around it once again saying that he couldn't sign anything until he had the license in place with the Ministry of Labor, and that he was still waiting for the license to be approved.

 

I arrived home feeling determined to make it work, regardless of the challenges that had already presented themselves to me. On the day I was scheduled to leave Bahrain to fly back home to South Africa I was exposed to the first of many fights the couple was to have, and experienced Angela's moodiness and iciness for the first time. They had obviously had a disagreement that morning because when we sat down to breakfast Angela ignored me all the way through. Later I came to understand that she felt enormously threatened by me and was nervous that Hejris would dump her for me. Angela lacked confidence and was completely controlled by Hejris. She followed him around like a shadow and never ventured out on her own. She typed all his letters for him, cooked his meals, washed and ironed his clothes and was basically a glorified maid. He said "jump" and she'd ask "how high?" I tried to ignore her iciness but the atmosphere was most uncomfortable. Later I also understood that this was the way she exercised control over Hejris. I did not know much about the Middle East except what I'd heard on the news. And it wasn't good news either. Everyone I knew kept warning me that it was not the best part of the planet to be moving to, no matter how rosy a picture was painted of the business potential. I knew that it was probably not the most glamorous country to live in, and that there were obvious dangers, but I was excited none-the-less. I enjoy humanitarian work and had been involved in several projects in South Africa. I'd financed and produced several film projects over the years to bring attention to social issues such as female abuse, illegal possession of firearms, drug addiction, child abuse and my latest project, Human Trafficking. In view of all the war going down in the Middle East I figured there were angry young people. And angry young people need a voice. I knew that being a Muslim country, Bahrain was very conservative. And I knew that films would enable people to bring much-needed attention to social issues. No war-torn countries were without social problems. Although I knew Bahrain had never been directly involved in the war, there were many people in that region who were directly affected by the war. On a spiritual level I thought I could bring some form of relief to the Gulf through my films.

 

Meantime my film school in South Africa was having its year-end Awards Event on the 29th June, the evening before I was due to fly to Bahrain. My daughter and I ran around like mad chickens trying to pack up our home and get the show on the road. From South Africa I embarked on an aggressive internet marketing campaign for the film school in Bahrain and the interest was fantastic. The more emails I received from interested students in the Middle East, the more excited I became. I was really convinced that I would hit the ground running when I arrived in Bahrain. There were dozens of emails backwards and forwards between Hejris and me during the time leading up to our relocation. Actually, they were all being typed by Angela, as Hejris doesn't read or write English and never completed his schooling. I didn't really know if I was actually making the right decision, giving up my comfortable but stressful life in South Africa or throwing all caution to the wind and pursuing something more exciting that may or may not work out. But I am a typical artist in that way;  I love new challenges and do tend to dive into new projects a lot, much to my own detriment at times.

 

The last month before relocating was chaos. My film school students had all completed their short film projects and we were adding the finishing touches to their prestigious Student Oscar's Evening. We had invited commissioning editors from the local television stations and also several local celebrities. I began making frantic calls to Hejris in Bahrain, urging him to please sign our contract. Each time I contacted him with my concerns that there was no contract in place, he would spin me some explanation. Eventually he said he was going to fly to South Africa to see me to allay my fears. Much later I found out that he had actually flown to South Africa to have meetings with other potential business partners too. During his visit to South Africa I took him to see one of my colleagues who has a partnership in a lighting company. He presented his opportunity plan to them regarding opening up a partnership lighting company in Bahrain and they actually flew over to check out the opportunity. But after meeting him they left and never contacted him again. All of this I only discovered upon my return to South Africa a few months later. During this visit to South Africa Hejris borrowed money from me (ZAR6000), which he agreed to pay back when I came over. Later he claimed that he had paid for my groceries and living expenses in Bahrain when in fact I had to get the loan back from him in dribs and drabs. Before I knew it, the Students year-end Event dawned on us and the movers had collected all the furniture and boxes. I walked around the empty house feeling very sad. As I walked through the rest of the house I felt chilly. Winter had wrapped her icy arms around me, forcing me out the house and into my warm car. I drove away with a big lump in my throat. I didn't know at that point how deeply we'd miss this house and how many buckets of tears we'd cry at leaving it behind.

 

We had arranged for my daughter and son to stay behind for a week, so that the cats permits could be completed. The Student Oscars was a great success. The cinema was packed with families and friends of the students, and all their short films were shown on the big screen. The audience was impressed at the high quality of films the students had produced, and I briefly spoke to someone from a local television channel who seemed interested in flighting some of the student films. It was a glitzy affair and everyone had made an effort to dress up for the event. I felt so proud watching the students walk down the red carpet. There were paparazzi present, who snapped away much to the delight of all the winners. My heart was swollen with pride and admiration for the students. My actor friend, Graham was the MC, and I stood next to him handing over the Student Oscar Awards in the various categories. Everything was just totally perfect. I couldn't have wished for a nicer way to close the chapter of my life in South Africa. By midnight I was exhausted and passed out on the couch in my friend's home where we were staying. When I woke up at 5am the following morning I started collecting all my belongings in preparation for my flight to Bahrain. Had I known that a mere 8 weeks later I would land up in prison there, I don't think I would have felt quite so excited about leaving South Africa!

 

CHAPTER 2

I was greeted at the airport by Hejris and Angela and immediately taken to see a villa in Hidd, an old fishing suburb near the airport on the north of the island. The inside looked nice, but being dark I couldn't really see what was going on around the house. On our way to his home Hejris urged me to sign the lease, as he said he had been looking for a house suitable for me but couldn't find one and that this was my last and only chance of finding a decent house close enough to the office. Close enough, I realized later, to be at his beck and call at the drop of a hat. The next day Hejris took me to see the office, as the carpenters were refurbishing. I was shocked to discover that they were still laying the floor boards, and that nothing else had been completed. Before my departure from South Africa we had decided to have our official launch of the film academy on the 12th July, which I felt would give us ample time to complete the office. Wrong again. The butterflies in my stomach were going mad. I tried to stay calm and took a deep breath. I couldn't believe how far behind they were with the office and that was the beginning of my high levels of frustration at dealing with what I can only describe turned out to be a very shady business deal. I stayed with Hejris and Angela for three days. During those three days the cracks started to show. The carpentry was slow, and the couple was having their usual fights, Angela had turned icy and moody and the atmosphere in their home was just far too tense to think, let alone conduct business. What horrified me one morning was seeing them both having a meeting on their verandah with a would-be client, dressed only in their pajamas! I had to get out and I had to get out fast. I decided there and then that I wouldn't even look at other houses; I was going to sign the lease on the villa in Hidd and move in.

 

Taking that house ended up being yet another saving grace. The house reminded me of an old Parkhurst house we'd once lived in. It had wooden floors and pressed ceilings. Although very sparsely furnished with everything but my taste in furniture, I was grateful to be out of Hejris's home. My new landlord, Ishmael was a real honey. The most kind and caring landlord I've ever had. Dressed in his traditional Arabic white robe, Ishmael checked on us every day and made sure we always had fresh drinking water. The garden had three fruit trees and although not much to write home about, I was grateful to have a natural space. Hidd was certainly not the nicest area of Bahrain. With so much construction going on around, one literally needed a 4x4 to get around. With mid summer there also wasn't an awful lot to do, thanks to the intense heat. I ventured to the local beach around the corner from our home and was disgusted to note how filthy the beach was. Papers, tin cans and food wrappings were everywhere. It looked like someone had emptied hundreds of garbage bins onto the beach in the middle of the night. Hejris warned me that we would not be permitted to swim in bathing suites at the public beaches, but would have to be covered. I set about trying to find out if there were any private or commercial beaches around, and eventually found a few at some rather expensive resorts. I knew the children and I would need some leisure time, as our weekends in South Africa were always filled with fun and I didn't want them feeling bored and depressed. Although there were loads of activities, most were frightfully expensive and I decided that we'd need to find activities that didn't cost an awful lot. Being an adventurous family, we were always on the go. Hidd was also miles from anywhere, so if you wanted fun and adventure you'd have to drive into the mainland. I went to the local supermarket to stock up on some groceries and discovered just how rural Hidd actually was. I was the only Caucasian face in the huge store and the tellers couldn't speak a word of English. After a few trips to this store I quickly learned to be completely covered or I would be ridiculed or spat at by female shoppers. It was quite a new experience.

 

The house came with a very humble, friendly Indian houseman called Nuur Islam, who doubled up as a Gardener. I was appalled to discover how much they paid domestic workers in the Middle East. Since Islam barely spoke English, Hejris came over on the day I interviewed him and said he would negotiate his salary. Fine, I thought, let us at least be clear with that. I was later horrified to learn that Hejris had offered him BD5 as a monthly salary (the equivalent of ZAR100/ US$14 per month to do house and garden!) Nuur Islam came from Bangladesh and wasn't married (fortunately for him, what money could he possibly send home each month?) I was taking him through his daily chores and he was shocked when I told him he could make himself tea and breakfast when he arrived at work in the morning. It was at that point that I began to realize that slavery seemed to be the order of the day in the Middle East. Domestic workers are paid a pittance and live in appalling conditions. Many of them are abused by their employers and I've read a few complaints from them saying they are not being allowed to return home to see their families after 2 years of continual service. I later discovered this to be very true and a common story in prison. I was itching to get stuck into work, as our official launch was only days away. But with no office, no telephone lines and no internet I could do nothing except sit and wait. The longer I sat around waiting and waiting, the more frustrated I grew until I eventually felt like I was going to explode. Nothing seemed to be happening fast. I was stuck indoors in the house, miles from the city centre with no car, no telephone and no internet. What could I do but wait? When it suited Hejris he would collect me and we would go to the office down the road to watch the carpenters laying the floor boards. I had a million things to do but nobody else seemed motivated enough to do anything. Eager to get the show on the road, I nagged Hejris to help organize me transport so I could at least get to the office on a daily basis. After my children and cats arrived a week later I rented an old Suzuki Vitara.

 

The 12th of July crept up on me like a rabid dog and bit me violently in the face. The floorboards were finally laid and the office was starting to look like something. I had sent out hundreds of invitations to prospective students via email prior to my arrival in Bahrain. Hejris and Angela were meant to do the same. They were also meant to follow up on the guest list, as they had internet and a telephone at home, I didn't. I paced up and down the corridor nervously on opening night, and had a gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach that the launch would not be well attended. I was right. A handful of people turned up and I felt like an idiot addressing them with a welcome speech. Hejris had arranged the entire event, which turned out to be a huge flop. I felt devastated. Is this what I had relocated for? I didn't want to accept the feeling that perhaps I'd just made the biggest mistake of my life. After wrapping up the event and seeing the few guests off, Hejris and Angela invited me to join them for drinks at the Gulf Hotel. I was feeling crushed and disappointed. They seemed elated and high. Literally. Angela irritated me the entire night, as she rambled on and on about irrelevant stuff whilst I was trying to enjoy the sounds of the live band. It later occurred to me that they might have taken drugs, as their behavior was very strange. She couldn't stop talking the whole night and was chewing gum so fast I thought she was going to chew her own face off. I had also never seen them so touchy-touchy in public before either. When I bounced this weird observation off my daughter, she tended to agree with me, saying their erratic and moody behavior was very indicative of drug-use. Nothing felt right that night. They were far too jovial for my liking, considering what a huge flop the opening evening had been. If there were 20 guests who turned up, it was a lot. Hejris had gone ahead and made his own arrangements regarding live entertainment (in the form of an old sing-along musician who was appalling) and catering. Not once did he ever bounce any of the costs off me, but I was automatically expected to pay for half of the flop event. To add insult to injury he couldn't provide me with any invoices or receipts and insisted that I should trust him with the costs. But what could I do? I couldn't walk away at that point. I'd already dived into the water. I felt that I had to sink or swim now. Little did I know that the Great White would be viciously attacking me in a few weeks to come. I tried to swallow my disappointment and found some inner strength and motivation.

 

My daughter and I eagerly arrived at the office at 08h00 every morning, since we wanted to gather some momentum and get into some kind of routine. But every day we arrived at the office, we discovered that the carpenters were still busy with adjustments in the office. So we'd plonk ourselves at the reception area of the Bahrain Business Incubation Centre and hook up to their very unreliable wi-fi internet connection with our lap-tops. Mostly we were not able to hook up to the internet and for the first three days we sat around, waiting patiently for something to happen. This was to become a pattern over the next two months. Waiting and waiting. Always waiting for something. When my editing suite arrived at customs I wanted to store it at the villa in Hidd until the carpentry was completed, as I did not want to suffer any damage to the equipment. But Hejris was adamant that the editing suite had to be set up at the office as soon as possible. I realized later that he was so eager for people to think he was this big shot filmmaker, when in truth he had never produced anything in his life before. Gabrielle and I signed up two students in our second week of sitting around at the reception, waiting for better days. One was a local Bahraini lady, another was a young gentleman from Saudi Arabia who had attended our opening launch. I decided to sponsor a young Indian lad who couldn't afford to pay for his course and so ended up with three students for my first course. This did not deter me, as I felt word would spread fast, being a small island, and that other students would join up in no time. Later, when Hejris discovered I'd sponsored an Indian lad he was furious, as he had thought I'd sponsored a Bahraini. He told me that I was never allowed to do anything charitable for Asians, and that he loathed them and considered them "scum of the earth". I was horrified and began questioning what the hell I had got myself into. News of my arrival on the island spread and a Middle Eastern newspaper, Gulf Weekly, called for an interview.

 

The Indian reporter was very sweet and after the interview we chatted briefly where she explained how Asians living in the gulf regions were very prejudiced against. I found that quite strange. How and why, in this day and age I thought? I soon discovered this to be very true. After the reporter left, Hejris approached me about my involvement in an international feature documentary I had been commissioned to work on whilst I was still in South Africa. He made it very clear that he would not permit me to work on any other projects that he hadn't first approved and that since the subject of this particular film project was global terrorism, it did not meet with his approval. I was flabbergasted! What the hell was happening, I thought? It slowly began to dawn on me that Hejris was using me to make him rich and that I was going to be controlled and manipulated unless I did something drastic to stop him.

 

The office frustrations just grew and grew. Eventually we couldn't cope anymore and called one of many meetings with Hejris where we tried to explain that we could not do any work if we did not have the tools. Of course he came up with every excuse in the book, blaming the carpenters, blaming the local telephone company, blaming everyone instead of taking responsibility for not giving us a proper working environment. During this time I was further subjected to his intimate relationship with Angela, who was growing icier towards me by the day. I asked Hejris what was going on which opened a flood gate of daily accounts of their soap-opera relationship. Every day he presented me with a run-down, much to my growing disgust. Some days she was packing to leave for England, other days they were going to try again. Most of the time he moaned about her nagging and whining and I wished that he could actually listen to himself doing exactly the same to me about her! I was subjected to all the dirt he had on her and he never hesitated to share it with me. According to him the reason why he did not want to marry her was that she was too moody and manipulative. She had left her husband in the UK, abandoned her children and moved to the Middle East to pursue a more exciting lifestyle. Hejris apparently picked her up in a nightclub a few months previously, taken her home, had sex with her and she had become part of the furniture ever since. I was appalled. He insinuated that she was becoming so icy towards me because she was jealous and threatened by me. Heavens, jealous of what, I thought. When he started volunteering information about their sexual relationship, I put my foot down and asked for him to refrain from divulging any more intimate details. He kept telling me that I was his perfect partner because Angela was not qualified to be doing this business. Apparently she held a diploma in physiotherapy, so obviously wasn't qualified to be in the film business. At this point he admitted that he was paying her a monthly salary to be his sexual partner. He told me that he would never be able to get her a working visa without the necessary qualifications and I suggested that perhaps he should consider keeping business and personal life separate, as my daughter and I were more than capable of handling all aspects of the business. I began to feel trapped by the situation. Over the next few weeks Hejris became more controlling and interfering in my life. He would obsessively call me umpteen times a day to check up on me. I'd always get the same questions: "Who are you with, where are you, what are you doing?" It drove me insane. My daughter and I had several heated meetings with him which never seemed to have any solutions. I usually walked away from those meetings feeling angry and frustrated. Sometimes he called private meetings with me. During those meetings I always felt uncomfortable as his attempt to control me grew. One time he told me that he did not want me dating any men in Bahrain as he didn't want to compromise our "business reputation". Another time he said he would never become romantically involved with Bahraini women, as he found them to be stupid and uncivilized. The hints were coming fast and furiously and I began getting nervous about where this was all leading. We struggled to keep up our enthusiasm and began nagging for telephone lines.

 

Eventually Hejris provided us with "pay-as-you-go" office mobiles which he expected us to work from. He loaded the phones with BD5 (approx ZAR100/US$14) and expected us to conduct marketing business. Consider what it costs to embark on an aggressive marketing and advertising campaign for a brand new business, plus contacting over 100 potential students to explain to each one in detail what the imminent course covers. Our agreement was always that he would provide a working office with all necessary tools in place for us to immediately begin marketing the business when we arrived. Over and above that the business would pay our monthly house rent and supply us with a car, plus pay us basic salaries. The 50/50 split of profits would happen after overheads were met. This did not appear to be happening. After three weeks of waiting patiently for Hejris to get his act together, we had telephone lines installed. Imagine our surprise when he informed us that he had barred any international calls! For a so-called international business attracting students from Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Qatar, how can you function without being able to make international calls? At this point there was still no internet. To add insult to injury, he casually strolled into the office one day during this time and announced that a Danish company had wanted to invest BD50, 000 in him and had approached him to go into partnership with them in a film academy. I got the distinct impression that he was trying to make us feel insecure while at the same time implying that we could easily be replaced. I was going out of my mind with frustration. At every turn there seemed some kind of an unpleasant surprise.

 

The next day Hejris called another meeting with us, where he expressed his anger and irritation because he felt we were putting too much pressure on him to complete the offices (after three frustrating weeks of working in the reception area). He said he found my requests for an extra office key, stationery for the office and extra chairs for the students, amongst other business-related things I requested for the office, totally excessive and unreasonable! Then he added that he did not work for us and that we should be more respectful when approaching him for anything. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The end of our first month was drawing nigh, and since I had secured an income for the business, it was now time to raise the topic of money. Up to that point Hejris kept avoiding financial discussions, saying that we would be in a better position to discuss business overheads after the first month. Now was the time to discuss that. I called the meeting and we went over the monthly overheads: rent, telephones, car, marketing, etc. When I broached the subject of our salaries he flew off the handle saying that once overheads were paid we could then split the profits. I tried to explain as calmly as I could that we had actually agreed the company would pay our salaries, as I would actually be both an employee of the company and a business partner, and would therefore be entitled to a salary since I was the one doing all the work. He did not take well to the discussion and stormed off saying I should email him a draft spreadsheet. I put together a list of our overheads, adding what we had each spent in our personal capacities on the business as a type of loan account. I was shocked to get a response email from Hejris with amounts which he was claiming for the business which we had never even discussed. When I asked him for receipts he flew off the handle once again, saying how dare I question his integrity and that I should trust him. Trust him I certainly did not at this point, given how the goal posts kept moving. I then demanded a salary for my daughter and myself, and yet another meeting was held.

 

Prior to the meeting Hejris appeared edgy and paranoid. I wondered what the hell he was up to. The financial meeting did not go well. He was adamant that he wanted complete control over all the finances of the company, and that he would ration money to me as and when I needed it, but was not prepared to have the business pay us a salary. I went home feeling violated and informed my daughter what had transpired at the meeting. She was furious and started ranting and raving, saying we'd been conned and we had to do something to get our contract from him or leave. I had to agree with her. Things had just gone too far. I went outside for some solitude and to try to make sense of the recent events leading up to this point. I thought back to all the things he'd said that had previously either offended me or had made me questioning his integrity. On two or three occasions whilst having meetings at his rather shabby house in Kanoo Gardens in Manama, I heard him telling people I was his "second wife". It was meant to be a joke, he later commented, but I couldn't help noticing how inflated his ego became when he was out and about with both myself and Angela. Its not uncommon in the Middle East for a man to have more than one wife and he loved giving that impression to people in public. What also further insulted me was the way he spoke about Asians, calling them "scum of the earth". When I told him of my intentions to become more involved in humanitarian work in Bahrain, he laughed at me, saying "don't waste your time, the more Asian scum that die here, the better!" Another time he had asked me if I knew where in South Africa he could buy stolen film equipment for cheap. I remember telling him I would never stoop that low as I'd never support crime and he'd laughed saying I didn't have to stoop, he would. I was piecing this all together in my head and it was not looking very pretty. It suddenly dawned on me that I had made the biggest mistake of my life. I'd given up my comfortable home in South Africa, thinking I was making a better move, only to find myself and my family in deep, deep hot water that was fast rising to boiling point. I didn't know what to do. My mind was racing. I'd dived in and now I had to find a way to swim away from this muddle. I was caught in the middle of a volatile, dysfunctional relationship between Hejris and Angela on the one hand, and on the other hand Hejris was trying to manipulate and control me and turn me into his puppet-on-a-string. I was not accustomed to being controlled. I made my own decisions and dealt with my own consequences. But here I found myself in the midst of a living nightmare. I didn't know where to turn or how to proceed.  We were in a foreign country on the other end of the globe with everything we owned. We had no more money and a new business which was not taking shape. And we were being totally controlled. I felt awful. But I knew I had to come up with another plan. Fast. We decided that we would tackle him for the last time the next day, and if he didn't come to the party, we would walk away.

 

I had a very restless night, hardly sleeping a wink. The next morning we took our time getting to the office, as we still had no internet. Back at the office I told my daughter we would attempt one last meeting and if we didn't get what we wanted, we would need to walk away. I immediately noticed her relaxing, and realized that it was our last straw. In the meantime I had met an estate agent, Hussain who had shown me a villa for rent on Amwaj Island. The villa formed part of a complex which was built on a canal that leads out to sea. After inspecting the villa I told the estate agent I would have to think about it, as I was having some problems with my partner at work, and didn't know if and how things would pan out. Hussain called me the next morning to find out if I had made any decisions on the villa at Amwaj Island. He pressed me for more details about what the problem was and when I told him he immediately advised me to try get out of the deal with Hejris, saying his family did not have a good reputation in business and that he was a con-artist. I was horrified yet very grateful, as it served as a confirmation that I was right in wanting to remove myself from the situation.

 

Later that evening Hejris arrived at the office for our meeting. Once again he seemed edgy and paranoid. I started the meeting as calmly as I could and explained that we were not happy with the way things were unfolding and that I felt he had gone back on most of our verbal agreements. He of course denied everything and tried to twist things around, but I was adamant and kept bringing the conversation back to the issues at hand. At this point my daughter, who had been quietly observing, dived in and lost her cool. I tried to calm her down but she went off on a tangent saying she was sick to death of standing by and watching Hejris take advantage of us, and that he had broken every agreement we'd ever made. She pointed out how much work we were doing and how little he was doing for the business, if any. She cornered him and he didn't know how to get out. Eventually he demanded to know what the hell we wanted from him. We told him we wanted salaries from the business, proper working tools & a signed agreement. We reminded him that he had already agreed to this, so why was it so difficult to follow through on? He kept side-stepping the issues at hand and avoided a commitment of any kind. I became so fed up, I told him we were going home as we'd been thrashing this out for three hours and weren't getting anywhere fast. For the first time ever I showed my irritation and we I stormed off in a huff of frustration, saying we'd be in touch the following day to reconvene.

 

The next morning I told my daughter we were not going into the office, as we had no securities in place and we would only be wasting our time anyway. At lunch time I received a call from Ralph, Hejris's other Caucasian partner in another business, who said he wanted to meet me at the Gulf Hotel the following day for lunch. I was curious and suspected that Hejris had put him up to the meeting. The children and I then spent the rest of day chilling out at home. But my mind was spinning with all the crap going on, and I wondered what my Plan B would be and if there was even a possibility of a Plan B. I prayed that a breakthrough would surface somehow. Just then Hussain called me to say he had a friend who was very interested in speaking with me about business. He had set up a meeting with Ali for later that evening. I didn't know what to expect but took my show reel along to the meeting. Ali was in his late 50's, well presented and seemed thoughtful and sincere. Hussain then told Ali about the problems I was experiencing with my current partner and that he had suggested that I walk away as he thought I was being screwed over. Ali watched my show reel and told me about his business. He immediately offered me a job, saying I could work for him as a producer/director for profit share. He also said he was keen to go into a partnership with me in opening a film academy. We spent the better part of two hours discussing business and filming in particular and shared some views on editing and directing styles. I left with a bounce in my step and slept peacefully that night for the first time since arriving on the island almost a month previously.

 

The next morning I went around to Ali's office to consolidate our contract & meet the rest of the staff.  What a difference from my dealings with Hejris! Ali was upfront, above board and sincere. After a very successful meeting  I made my way to the Gulf Hotel to meet up with Ralph. I had no idea what was in store for me and tried to keep an open mind. Ralph introduced me to a woman called Zane, another South African living and working in Bahrain, who did most of the talking during our meeting. I realized very quickly that Hejris had put them up to this meeting to convince me to "try to make the business work". They pressed me for details of my concerns and I told them exactly what was going down. I could see that Ralph was agreeing with a lot of what I was saying, as he had been privy to much of the details during the build-up stage of our relocation. I told Ralph that Hejris was refusing to sign a contract and that he indicated he wanted total control of the business finances. Ralph laughed and said Hejris had no money skills. I also told him about the problems I was having with Angela's interference in the business and he agreed that she shouldn't have any involvement in the business whatsoever. They could see how frustrated I was and the more I spoke about the problems, the more I began to realize that there was not much that could be done. I actually wanted out. Hejris thought he had us exactly where he wanted us. I knew that and he knew that. He didn't think I'd leave after relocating my family and possessions over to the Middle East. He thought wrong. Eventually I excused myself. Ralph stood up to greet me saying he would try to mediate and get some kind of a contract in place for me. I left that meeting feeling irritated. What the hell was Hejris up to, I wondered.

 

When I arrived home I emailed the third drafted contract through to Ralph with a deadline of two days. I also emailed him my terms and conditions. I knew Hejris would not sign the contract so I began gathering my thoughts towards joining Ali in business. The deadline came and went. No signed contract. I emailed Ralph saying the deadline was over and that I would send Hejris our letters of resignation. Ralph said he was disappointed that I was willing to give up so easily. I told him I couldn't work with all the drama and chaos, and that there were just too many control issues to contend with. We drove to the office and collected all our editing equipment. As soon as we could, we went to the internet cafe down the road and emailed Hejris our letters of resignation and asked for the return of our passports, sending Ralph copies as well. There was nothing more to do. Chapter closed. Or so I thought.

 

Early the following morning we received a phone call from the police station in Hidd. We were told to come to the police station immediately, as Hejris had opened a case against us. I was totally shocked. What case could he possibly have against us? I immediately called Hussain and told him what was happening. He offered to accompany us to the police station. Hejris and Angela were sitting in the Captain's office. Hussain, I and the two children sat on the couch against the wall. Hejris opened the conversation saying that he had brought us to the police station so he could have us imprisoned and deported. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I asked Hejris what case he'd opened against us and he said we had stolen his editing equipment and that we were "runaways". My mouth dropped open. What editing equipment? All the editing equipment belonged to us, which we'd brought with us from South Africa. At that point Angela butted in. "You cannot just walk in and remove equipment when you are in a partnership with someone" she retorted sarcastically. I laughed out loud. Since he wasn't pulling his weight I could leave whenever I wanted, especially since he had never signed a formal contract with me. "Besides," Angela bit in again "it's illegal to run away from your sponsor in this country". Run away? I was completely confused. A three hour long conversation then ensued in Arabic between him and Hussain. Eventually Hussain said Hejris wanted BD3500 (approximately ZAR70, 000/US$8500) to release us from his sponsorship and give us our passports back. I laughed out loud. More negotiations in Arabic followed. Eventually Hussain said Hejris would accept BD1800 (approximately ZAR36,000/US$4200). I couldn't believe what was going down. He was trying to "sell" our passports back to us! Eventually I became so irritated that I agreed, saying we'd pay him the amount within three months provided he signed an agreement. We went downstairs to the Women's Section to make our statements. The statements were written out in Arabic and Hussain translated for us. We signed them and left. I felt violated once again. I couldn't believe that the Police Captain had sat back and watched this drama unfolding, doing absolutely nothing in our defense. At one stage I even asked him if it was against the law in Bahrain to hold people's passports and he said it was. So why, I'd asked, was he not doing anything in getting them safely back to us? That question was conveniently ignored. By now the entire situation stank to high heaven. Hejris was packing on the lies and deceit so heavily that even I began to question the truth of things at times.

 

The next evening Hussain kindly drove us to Hejris's house to collect our passports and get Hejris to sign the "settlement" agreement which we'd typed up. The settlement document stated that we would pay him BD1800 within three months, that he would return our passports immediately and that there would be no further claims against one another for the failed business venture. The agreement also stated that he would cancel the case of theft against us. Two hours later Hussain emerged from the house with a signed agreement, Letters of No Objection but no passports. We drove home in silence. I didn't dare ask why he didn't have our passports. I fell asleep that night feeling very confused and irritated. What the hell was happening, I wondered. This seemed to be turning into one huge mess.

 

CHAPTER 3

Ali's office was miles away from home, but we drove through the mad traffic each morning to get to the office by 09h00. We squeezed into a tiny back office with another staff member. We were set to go and started an aggressive marketing campaign to get some clients on board. We drew up a list of all major companies in Bahrain and began setting up appointments with their Marketing Managers and Corporate Communication people. I felt relieved to be back in production again. Over the next two weeks we had meetings with various companies, quoting on jobs and trying to close some deals. Within no time we had tons of work lined up and I approached Ali for an advance, since we had lived without salaries for months and our household was very stretched. My daughter was suffering from loneliness and missed her friends in South Africa. Due to the immense stress our little family was under, the kids began arguing more and more and it drove me insane. I couldn't stand the tension at home. It was just too much after the tensions I was already forced to deal with on the work front. I didn't feel guilty asking Ali for an advance as there was so much work on the table and more filtering in on a daily basis. I had also signed up 5 students so knew there was going to be plenty of money coming in. Ali didn't even hesitate and immediately issued me a cheque. I began to feel more in control with the possibility of so much work on the table. The next day my young son and I moved into our new home on Amwaj island while my daughter had taken over the little villa in Hidd. She was going to advertise for some young people to share her house with her as she was suffering from loneliness and needed company. What a relief. Finally I could get back into a routine again. It seemed things were finally settling down and going somewhere. Ha! How wrong was I. That was just the calm before the storm.

 

I was eager to sign up some more students, and felt bad that I had left my sponsored Indian student, Arif, stranded. When I was with Hejris I had advertised my filmmaking classes through the "What's On" section of the local newspaper. I approached Ali, asking him to sanction a listing under his company's name, so we could get some student enrolments. He agreed and we submitted the listing to the newspaper, advertising our filmmaking classes. While paging through the paper that day I read with keen interest of a local person trying to fight Human Trafficking in the Middle East. I immediately called him and volunteered my services as a filmmaker, offering to produce a film on Human Trafficking for his organization. A few weeks previously I had begun writing a script for a film on the subject, so felt the meeting would be very synchronistic. I then contacted a young lad, Busac at a youth organization suggesting we meet up to discuss some ideas. Unfortunately neither of these meetings transpired, due to our imprisonment. A week later I received a call from Ahmed at the Ministry of Labor, informing me that I was illegally advertising film classes, as Ali's company did not have a training license. I immediately called Hussain, who assured me that Ali had definitely said he did have a training license. I tried to get Ali on his mobile phone, but didn't have any luck. I went through to Ali's PA and asked her if she had a copy of his license. She pulled it out from the files and we went over the license together. No training was listed on the license. Gabrielle then addressed a letter to the newspaper asking them to withdraw the listing. When Ali came into the office later that day, I approached him about the problem. He suggested I go and see Ahmed at Ministry of Labor and discuss the matter with him personally. Evidently Ali had mistakenly thought that his business license had included training. I decided to call my new friend, Dr Alkhor at the Chamber of Commerce. Dr Alkhor was a volunteer at the Human Rights Society and I had met him the evening I had approached the society for assistance in getting my passports back from Hejris. He had given me his business card and told me to contact him with any concerns I might have regarding working or setting up business in Bahrain. I found his business card and called him. He told me he was on leave, but would be willing to come in to the office specially to meet with me. In the meantime Hejris had cancelled our working visas and Immigration had given us until the 22nd August to get new working visas. I reminded Ali that we were counting down the days to the expiry. He immediately got his clearing agent to work on the issue. On the 19th August Ali called me in for a meeting and told me he had organized tickets for us to fly to Qatar and back on the 22nd August. It never occurred to me to check if we needed entry visas. Two days before we were due to fly I suddenly thought to check about the entry visas and Gabrielle and I visited the Qatar Embassy. They informed us the only way we could get entry visas was if someone in Qatar organized them for us and they would take 3 working days. I called Hussain. He reminded me that there was an Immigration Amnesty on, and that it really wasn't necessary for us to leave the country. All we needed to do was pay a fine. I called Dr Alkor. I felt insecure about the situation and didn't want to take any chances.

 

Dr Alkhor's office at the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce was warm and welcoming. He offered me tea and dates and I began filling him in on the details since our last meeting at the Human Rights Society. Dr Alkhor then informed me that it was not necessary for me to have a Bahraini partner in starting my own film academy, and that he would gladly assist me. I told him that I had already agreed to go into partnership with Ali and that we had already discussed and drafted a contract. I then explained the situation about the visas expiring and he assured me that it was really not a serious problem at all. All I would have to do was pay a fine. I left his office feeling more relaxed and made my way back to the office to let my daughter know what was happening. Whilst we were discussing the situation, I thought we should perhaps attempt to get our visas extended at Immigrations, thereby saving ourselves the effort and cost of flying out and back in again. Gabrielle and I made our way down to Immigrations to attempt an extension. When we arrived there, we didn't know where to go. The signs were confusing and we asked a gentleman at Information to help us. We explained our situation to him and showed him the stamps in our passport. We were then sent to another building, where we joined the queue. When we got to the front of the queue we were told to fill out some forms, which we did. When the official referred to the computers he said that we had filled out the wrong forms and needed to go back to the other building. I was starting to get flustered. When we arrived at the other building we spotted Hamza, Ali's Clearing Agent. We almost kissed him with relief, but then quickly realized that a public display of affection would not have gone down well in a Muslim country. We explained our situation to Hamza, who approached one of his friends who worked at Immigrations. The friend looked us up on the computers and said there would not be a problem and that we would be safe and just needed to pay a fine. Just as we were leaving I received a call from the Hidd Police Station. I couldn't make out what the female officer was trying to tell me, so I hurried back into the crowd at Immigrations to find Hamza. He took the phone and they spoke in Arabic. When he finished he said that they wanted my daughter and I to be at the police station at 08h00 the following morning with BD120 (approx ZAR2400) for my son's paperwork, and that Hejris needed our settlement agreement to be signed at the police station. Apparently he was afraid that he would not get his BD1800. I thought that was crazy. We'd both signed the agreement in front of witnesses, and if I defaulted he could take me to court. I checked inside my son's passport. The only stamp that appeared was the original entry stamp when the children had first arrived on the island a week after me. What paperwork? Hamza suggested I go and find out what was going on. On the way to the office I called Dr Alkhor, who said I had nothing to worry about and that I should just go along to show my willingness to cooperate. We hurried back to the office and informed Ali's PA of the latest news regarding our passports. She cancelled the flights and we got back to work. I called Hussain. He knew the local law better than anyone else I knew, having worked in HR his whole adult life. Then I informed him of the phone call from Hidd Police Station. He advised me not to go the following morning but to go to another police station and lay a charge against Hejris for making up false allegations about us stealing the edit suite. I was once again confused. I didn't want to break the law by not appearing at the police station when summoned to do so, but I also didn't want to put us in a compromising position. In retrospect I should have listened to Hussain. I didn't want the police arriving at Ali's office and causing him embarrassment, so I decided to go along to the police station and get the papers signed to appease the situation. Little did I know that my willingness to cooperate would land us in jail for a week!

 

The next morning I woke up very early but was not in the mood for my usual morning's swim in the canal. I tidied up the kitchen and found myself pacing around the villa. I realized I was nervous about the meeting at the station. I dressed and left early to collect my daughter from Hidd. We arrived at the police station at exactly 08h00 but Hejris was not there. I noticed a bunch of documents lying on the female police officers desk in the Women's Section and sneaked a glance. Most of the stuff was written in Arabic. But then I noticed a letter from one of my company's creditors, Janice in South Africa addressed to Hejris. I skimmed through the letter and was horrified to read the trash she had written about me to Hejris. My South African company owed her company money for the extra's we hired that turned out to be such a disaster on my last film shoot. But because the amount she claimed the company owed her was in question, we had been in electronic contact about the account. But in the letter she was accusing me of fraud saying she would have me arrested for the company debt when I returned to SA and that I had "misappropriated" my company's funds by not paying her company the debt. I was horrified. In South Africa you cannot be arrested for debt, you have to literally sue a company through the court to get your debt paid, unless the company liquidates. Just then the female police officer walked in and told us we needed to go to the court to have the papers signed there in front of a Magistrate and that we could catch a lift with her as there was no parking near the court. I said I'd take my own car and find parking and was told that it would only delay us more, and that it would be a good idea to rather drive with them. We jumped into the van and headed off for the courthouse in Manama. I felt completely rattled about Janice's letter. I realized that Hejris had some kind of an ulterior motive. Why would he have a letter like that in his file for court? I couldn't shake my anxiety. Months later as I churned over the events I realized I should just have left the police station and done what Hussain had suggested. But the female police officers had told us that it would be better for us to get the documents signed at the court so that Hejris would leave us alone. Little did we realize they were not on our side. When we arrived at the courthouse we saw Hejris and Angela standing outside the entrance having a cigarette. I did not want there to be any animosity, so greeted them as politely as I could. Neither returned the greeting but gave me a hateful stare in response. We were shown to the Ladies Waiting Room where we settled ourselves in anticipation of having the agreement signed in front of a magistrate or prosecutor. I needed to use the bathroom and asked the police officer where it was. She came with us to the bathroom and stood outside. On the way downstairs to the waiting room she was behaving very suspiciously and I began to feel very edgy. Back at the waiting room we noticed Angela coming in and out of the room and we were confused about what was going on. I began to panic and went into the corridor to call Dr Alkhor at Chamber of Commerce. I explained my concerns to him and he advised us to walk a block or two down the road to see his attorney friend, Mohammed, who was also a volunteer attorney for the Human Rights Society. We turned and started making our way towards the door, but were stopped dead in our tracks by the female police officer. We informed her we were going off to see the attorney and she said we were not permitted to leave the building. That is when I realized we were being detained. I immediately called Dr Alkhor back and told him what was going down. He arranged for Mohammed to come and see us at the courthouse and we sat down to wait for him. In the meantime I insisted that we see a judge or someone who could explain what was going on, and the police officer reluctantly took us through to see a judge.

 

She handed him some papers and they exchanged words in Arabic. I told the judge that I needed to know what was going on and he said an order had been issued by the prosecutor, and that our sponsor no longer wanted us to "work for him", but wanted us deported back to South Africa because we had stolen equipment from him. We were shocked and horrified! I tried to explain what was happening, and was shooed out by the judge saying he couldn't speak English very well and the matter was closed. I went completely numb. We walked back to the waiting room in a daze to wait for the attorney. Half an hour later Mohammed arrived. We briefly told him the story and he disappeared, saying her would see what he could do. A whole hour had passed and I began feeling weak since I hadn't eaten breakfast. It was 12h30 and we were still sitting around waiting. Next thing we were rounded up with another group of woman and ushered to the police van. The police van dropped off the first group of women at the Muharraq station and I assumed we were heading back to be dropped off at Hidd where we had left our car.

"Mom, I have a feeling we're going to prison" my daughter said nervously.

"Don't be ridiculous!" I snapped. How could we be going to prison? We hadn't done anything wrong. And besides, I said, they can't just throw you in prison with no court appearance. How wrong was I! The van drove straight past the Hidd station. I began to panic. I called the lawyer, Mohammed and will never forget his words: "Sorry, I am terribly sorry for this, the courts are adjourned now for the weekend, the earliest I can do something is on Sunday morning when courts open again, I'm so terribly sorry for this, I will try to get you released on Sunday and get you an extension on your visas". I remember asking him if we had to spend the weekend in prison and he said yes, he was sorry, there was nothing he could do. I looked at my daughter and she burst into tears. I couldn't believe this was happening to us. I think I went into shock as I do not remember actually arriving at the female prison in Hidd. What I do remember is being shouted at in an office which I assumed was the warden's office of the Hidd Female Prison. I was asked to sign something in Arabic and had my fingerprints taken. My daughter was crying hysterically and I was attempting to contact someone telephonically to take care of my young son and our cats. A prison guard aggressively grabbed my cell phone out of my hand and placed it in a plastic bag with my name on the cover. I was told to take off all my jewellery, which was also placed in the plastic bag. My daughter became inconsolable and I was in a total state of shock. People were yelling and arguing and there was chaos in the office. I never dreamt this would happen to us. I didn't know how this could have happened. We hadn't done anything wrong, Why were we being sent to prison? And not just any prison either! The worst prison in Bahrain! We were taken to a room next door and told to take off all our clothes. My daughter was menstruating and I knew she had run out of sanitary towels, because we had planned on going home to collect some before going to the office after court. I watched as they made my child undress completely. I felt sick. Then it was my turn. I was made to undress completely and then asked to squat naked on the floor so they could check my orifices for god only knows what. The prison guard had a twisted, hateful grin on her face. "Up, down" she said and gestured for me to move up and down in a squatting motion. I must have been doing these squats for ages because the muscles in my legs were burning. Eventually I stopped and she said "again". "What the hell do you want?" I snapped and she gestured for me to get dressed, a smug smile playing at the corner of her mouth. Our handbags were taken from us and we were pushed like cattle through the prison gate into the cells.