Trafic d'innocence

Kudos to Mira Sorvino (who has become a crusader on this), Lifetime, and producers for making this important expose of this vicious crime. The 4 hour opus charts a single Russian mobster as he kidnaps, rapes, and transports girls into America and around the world. Of course Mira and Donald Sutherland as ICE agents heroically chase the villains, but in reality very little is done to control these vicious predators- police are usually the problem, since they have no understanding or sympathy for the plight of captive "whores", whom they punish and bully for their supposed crimes.

I was a reporter for over 2 years in Russia, and have seen the monstrosity of these criminals and awesome beauty, sweetness, romanticism, and eroticism of the girls there- who are brought up to defer to and please men. In a place where people would make $20 a month, girls would jump at any Western job, which could give them a real life. Lured by an imaginary secretarial or maid job in Europe, they would have documents taken and quickly be raped and broken into total submission. Huge numbers are sent to Israel, where the government ignores problem. But all over the world, Russian girls are wanted by traffickers and johns for their great beauty, literacy, and skills.

An incredible NPR report explained how young girls are shipped to filthy Mexican nightmare brothels where they have to service 30-50 clients a day, then smuggled into America, where they are handed off to other pimps at Disneyland. By this time they are so terrorized and shattered that they don't even try to get away.

A Russian father improbably joins the traffickers to find and rescue his daughter.

If anything this docudrama soft-peddles the horrors- but TV couldn't take the unvarnished truth. It should be mandatory viewing for every American, especially all law enforcement. This hideous crime should be treated as seriously as genocide, since it is. As Sorvino says in the end, the shelve life of these girls before they are used up, killed, or diseased is 4 years, and some 800,000 are trafficked every year- several Darfurs, Bosnias, Kosovos, Iraqs put together.

It is great that Lifetime is allowing the presentation of what is going on through out the entire world and very little is mentioned in our local newspapers. However, we do hear about an occasional girl or boy that is missing and is never heard from and I can imagine the police files must be over flowing with plenty of Cold Cases. This film clearly depicts the horrible PIGS and Sex Offenders who thrive on young innocent children. These poor human beings with a spiritual soul are required to perform degrading services, which hurts their chances to live normal lives or even want to be married to any man in their future lives !

I applaud the showing of this type of material, but making this a regular program with all these type of cases is more than my stomach can handle. Enough is Enough !

Unfortunately I could not rate a 10, the word excellent thru me off. From about the first ten minutes in, this movie made me sick, sad, terrified and left me feeling helpless. I never could have imagined what I was about to see...or feel. My mind went for days and I could not sleep for more than twenty mins. at a time the night after I watched the first part. I waited two days to watch the 2nd, knowing that I needed to be undisturbed and aware of how I would feel while watching. It's true that I would have never thought this to be a TV movie, as I have never felt so much sickness. This movie is an eye opener as well as a motivator...in my attempt to learn even more, I had to check out the actresses and actors of this film to see them out of character, of course to make myself feel better to go to sleep in my safe little bed. But, to serve the purpose of rating the movie, it was more than I think I have ever "had." It hit real hard in every way possible, and I am thankful at least for the knowledge. But so sad. The crew did a great job, acting, directing, etc. The truth, alone, is horrific.

In Prague, Czech Republic, the single mother Helena (Isabelle Blais) is seduced by a successful handsome man and travels with him to spend a weekend in Vienna, Austria; in Kiev, Ukraine, the sixteen-year-old Nadia (Laurence Leboeuf) is selected by a model agency and travels to the United States with the other selected candidates; in Manila, Philippines, the twelve-year-old American tourist Annie Gray (Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse) is abducted in front of her parents. In common, the girls become victims of a powerful international network of sex traffickers leaded by the powerful Sergei Karpovich (Robert Carlyle). In New York, after the third death of young Eastern European prostitutes, the obstinate Russian-American NYPD agent Kate Morozov (Mira Sorvino) convinces the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Chief Bill Meehan (Donald Sutherland) to hire her, promising him that she would fight against this type of crime and that he would not regret.

"Human Trafficking" is the third great movie that I have watched about this sad reality. "Lilja 4-ever" and "Anjos do Sol" are extremely pessimist and realistic, but focused in the life of only one character. "Human Trafficking" gives a big picture how these gangs operate, following the drama of three lead characters. Mira Sorvino is wonderful, as usual, and her final speech about this profitable slavery of the Twentieth-First Century and the sexual tourism is very realistic and touching. The direction is excellent, the screenplay is very well written and the whole cast deserves to be congratulated for their magnificent performances. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Tráfico Humano" ("Human Traficking")

Given my line of work, this issue is something that I am very aware of. This film has strong performances and has one surprising twist (which I was not expecting - and I normally see these coming from a mile!). However, the most important point of this film is that it raises the issue - although to show the true deprivation is nigh impossible given this topic. Let's just say hell is would be considered mild. Hence, the topic can only ever be glossed over and be more of a decaffeinated version of reality. (For a slightly more gritty film on this topic, see 'The Jammed', if you can - it's an Australian Film).

It is impossible to truly represent this crime. No one can make a film (legally anyway) that shows girls (and boys) being raped by 20+ men a day for money... Yet that is exactly what happens, day and night. This is no lie. I have seen the effects of this. As you read this, more than a few girls and boys in the world is experiencing that against their wishes. A head in the sand approach does not solve the problem. The only way to solve the problem is to get men to realize that five seconds of their fun should not come at the expense of degrading someone against their will. Are men really that shallow and inadequate? (Oh, yes I am a man!) Men, if you need, just go to the bathroom...

Oh, and finally, to respond to the post by "e_pipersberg". Yawn. I wouldn't rate his post given that his sports predication was so way off as well. Seems he can't critique anything that comes close to being called accurate. Then again, maybe the topic was a little too close to the truth for him...