REVIEW OF TRAFFICKED FOR LINKED IN - Most on Monday or Tuesday
Names of the characters
Ashley Judd - Diane
Writer Siddharth Kara
white girl sarah played by Kelly Washington
Alpa Banker as Amba from India
Jessica Obilom as Mali
Watch on Amazon Prime
Last night I watched Trafficked and I was riveted from beginning to end-mainly it was the writer Siddharth Kara's excellent ability to answer the question: "How does this happen?"
The films focuses on three young women from different parts of the world: Northern California, India and Nigeria. They all end up together in a Texan whare house on lockdown. The stories of how they got there are varied and violent. There was Amba from a high class family in India, a swim star bound for MIT. She and her sister were victims of an acid attack when Amba refused to go out with a local boy in New Deli. After throwing acid on them, he sold Amba to a local Madame who sold her to someone in Amsterdam eventually landing her in Texas by way of Mexico. There was the 'mother' Mali from Nigeria who had to leave her baby behind after her husband became paralyzed on the job. With no other job prospects, Mali went into prostitution she felt it was the only way she could feed her family. She coped by reciting what her mother told her once, "It only takes a few minutes to lie with a man but it takes all day to plant sweet potatoes." Mali is a loving character, who holds a knit doll close, a surrogate for the baby she left behind. She uses her mothering instincts to help the other women and girls she encounters. Our third young woman is Sarah, a blond blue eyed Californian in foster care with her younger sister. Sarah is visited by Diane (Ashley Judd) on her 18th birthday. Diane demands that Sarah now 18 vacate the foster home that the Nun (Anne Archer) runs. Diane sells them both on the idea of working on a cruise ship. Shortly after Sarah and a few other young girls drive away from the foster home, bound for presumed sea fairing adventures, Diane rendezvous's with some sleaze-bags who take the girls by force, punching them in their faces and knocking a girl unconscious when she tries to run. When Sarah cries out: "Why are you doing this?" Diane, replies,"It's just business." she then turns to the sleaze-bags and tells them to "Teach these girls a lesson." The film does a fair job sharing the blame among men and women in the trafficking business from Madames to pimps, to drivers, to security etc., it seems no one is safe once these young girls have been abducted all accept, Enrique played by Efren 'Vote for Pedro' Ramirez who helps two of them escape although he himself is in an impossible situation as a Mexican immigrant without papers and a family to feed. It's a difficult, timely subject matter and it is worth noting how much violence is shown in the film. You see women and young girls groped, forced to have sex against their will aka raped. You see them punched in the face, shot and in one scene, a flashback of Sarah's when she and her younger sister witness their father beating their mother to death right in front of them. As a filmmaker, I feel we've seen enough images of violence against women - we've certainly seen enough rape. But violence is a big part of the story and it becomes crystal clear why these women don't leave their situations when their held at gun point, locked in their rooms, beaten and forced to watch as their less than obliging 'colleagues' are murdered in cold blood right in front of them.
I was profoundly sad when at the end, Mali, 'The Mother' Mali doesn't escape. She's in the final scene, comforting an underage girl as they wait on the streets with other prostitutes for their fate which comes in the form of a heavyset old white guy. He rolls up in some late model sedan, looking at them both, he says: "I'll take the little one." As Mali reluctantly let's go of the scared little girl, it's suggested that maybe this is the little girl's first time or maybe she won't come back. We see her sweet little face in this stranger's car as they drive off. It's just unimaginable why a grown man would desire a little girl sexually. Mali herself is crying, alone on a dirty street curb. I felt cynical by the decision to not let Mali go. Doesn't Mali deserve to be free like Sarah and Amba? Of course, and yet this is not what happens in real life. It is usually not a happy ending for these young women and girls.
Names of the characters
Ashley Judd - Diane
Writer Siddharth Kara
white girl sarah played by Kelly Washington
Alpa Banker as Amba from India
Jessica Obilom as Mali
Watch on Amazon Prime
Last night I watched Trafficked and I was riveted from beginning to end-mainly it was the writer Siddharth Kara's excellent ability to answer the question: "How does this happen?"
The films focuses on three young women from different parts of the world: Northern California, India and Nigeria. They all end up together in a Texan whare house on lockdown. The stories of how they got there are varied and violent. There was Amba from a high class family in India, a swim star bound for MIT. She and her sister were victims of an acid attack when Amba refused to go out with a local boy in New Deli. After throwing acid on them, he sold Amba to a local Madame who sold her to someone in Amsterdam eventually landing her in Texas by way of Mexico. There was the 'mother' Mali from Nigeria who had to leave her baby behind after her husband became paralyzed on the job. With no other job prospects, Mali went into prostitution she felt it was the only way she could feed her family. She coped by reciting what her mother told her once, "It only takes a few minutes to lie with a man but it takes all day to plant sweet potatoes." Mali is a loving character, who holds a knit doll close, a surrogate for the baby she left behind. She uses her mothering instincts to help the other women and girls she encounters. Our third young woman is Sarah, a blond blue eyed Californian in foster care with her younger sister. Sarah is visited by Diane (Ashley Judd) on her 18th birthday. Diane demands that Sarah now 18 vacate the foster home that the Nun (Anne Archer) runs. Diane sells them both on the idea of working on a cruise ship. Shortly after Sarah and a few other young girls drive away from the foster home, bound for presumed sea fairing adventures, Diane rendezvous's with some sleaze-bags who take the girls by force, punching them in their faces and knocking a girl unconscious when she tries to run. When Sarah cries out: "Why are you doing this?" Diane, replies,"It's just business." she then turns to the sleaze-bags and tells them to "Teach these girls a lesson." The film does a fair job sharing the blame among men and women in the trafficking business from Madames to pimps, to drivers, to security etc., it seems no one is safe once these young girls have been abducted all accept, Enrique played by Efren 'Vote for Pedro' Ramirez who helps two of them escape although he himself is in an impossible situation as a Mexican immigrant without papers and a family to feed. It's a difficult, timely subject matter and it is worth noting how much violence is shown in the film. You see women and young girls groped, forced to have sex against their will aka raped. You see them punched in the face, shot and in one scene, a flashback of Sarah's when she and her younger sister witness their father beating their mother to death right in front of them. As a filmmaker, I feel we've seen enough images of violence against women - we've certainly seen enough rape. But violence is a big part of the story and it becomes crystal clear why these women don't leave their situations when their held at gun point, locked in their rooms, beaten and forced to watch as their less than obliging 'colleagues' are murdered in cold blood right in front of them.
I was profoundly sad when at the end, Mali, 'The Mother' Mali doesn't escape. She's in the final scene, comforting an underage girl as they wait on the streets with other prostitutes for their fate which comes in the form of a heavyset old white guy. He rolls up in some late model sedan, looking at them both, he says: "I'll take the little one." As Mali reluctantly let's go of the scared little girl, it's suggested that maybe this is the little girl's first time or maybe she won't come back. We see her sweet little face in this stranger's car as they drive off. It's just unimaginable why a grown man would desire a little girl sexually. Mali herself is crying, alone on a dirty street curb. I felt cynical by the decision to not let Mali go. Doesn't Mali deserve to be free like Sarah and Amba? Of course, and yet this is not what happens in real life. It is usually not a happy ending for these young women and girls.