Emilie Upczak's smart 2017 debut film tells the story of ZhenZhen (Valerie Tian), a Chinese girl who joins her brother Wei (Jay Wong) on the island of Trinidad and Tobago after her father's death. A local gang leader extorts an exorbitant fictive tax to the price of her ticket over and will sell her off if she cannot make up the difference. ZhenZhen ends up having to work as a prostitute, while Wei turns to gambling in order to try and make up her debt. A possible savior arrives in the person of local gallery owner Evelyn (Kandyse McClure). Meanwhile ZhenZhen lands a job working in a local restaurant but it's barely enough to make ends meet, let alone repay her debt. Owner Mrs. Liu (Jacqueline Chan) doubles as an island Madam and soon draws ZenZhen into a seedy world of prostitution-an especially difficult situation for one as sensitive as she. The audience watches distraught as the two siblings descend into an abyss that they seemingly cannot escape. ZhenZhen desperately tries to keep track of all the moving parts of her new existence, but they threaten to overwhelm her. Human trafficking, also known as modern slavery, represents one of the most widespread crimes globally, with over 4.5 million people trafficked yearly in the United States alone (70% of them women) and an estimated yearly profit of over $150 billion worldwide. The film's melancholic pacing and Nancy Schreiber's resourceful cinematography successfully convey the psychological and physical torment that Zhenzhen undergoes-a victim to a cast of unscrupulous characters who consider her nothing better modern-day chattel to be exploited as they please.--Johnny Bulgakov
