Human Trafficking (2005) (TV)

Director:

Christian Duguay

Writers (WGA):

Carol Doyle (teleplay) and
Agatha Dominik (teleplay) ...

Release Date:

24 October 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Everyday, young girls are bought and sold.

Plot:

Hundreds of thousands of young women have vanished from their everyday lives-forced by violence into a hellish existence of brutality and prostitution...

Plot Keywords:

Underworld | Rape Scene | Ice | Forced To Strip | Philippines

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 6 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Lynne Adams	...	Ellen Baker
Sarah Allen	...	Ludmilla
Andreas Apergis	...	Jimmy
Manuel Aranguiz	...	Mexican Police Captain
Isabelle Blais	...	Helena Votrubova
Céline Bonnier	...	Sophie
Emma Campbell	...	Samantha Gray
Robert Carlyle	...	Sergei Karpovich
Edouardo Castillon	...	Roy Filipo
Joe Cobden	...	Richard Sapperstein
Larry Day	...	Dr. Smith
Alan Fawcett	...	DHS Agent Leary
Von Flores	...	Rico
Dawn Ford	...	Viktoria Votrubova - Helena's Aunt
Rémy Girard	...	Viktor Tagarov

Runtime:

176 min | Germany:89 min (DVD version)

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Spain:18 | Australia:MA (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Company:

For Sale Productions (Muse)

Goofs:

Errors in geography: In what is supposed to be Washington, they show a train with the symbol for AMT (Agence Métropolitaine de Montréal), a suburban rail network connecting the greater Montreal metro area (the 450 area code) with Montreal, which proves that this scene was filmed in the Montreal area (not Washington).

Quotes:

Customs Agent Bill Meehan: You got a lot of skills Kate. Acting isn't one of them.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Everybody's Movie (2006) (V)

Essential docudrama on unexposed nightmare network of monsters

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.