source: Trafficked

Based on the book by Harvard professor Siddharth Kara, which he adapted into the screenplay, this film tells the horrific story of human trafficking in the modern age. As indicated in the film, there are millions of victims of the trafficking with as many as 100,000 in the United States of America. According to Kara, as an industry, human trafficking accounted for the staggering figure of $100 billion passing hands within a single year. The film had an ambitious reach as it depicted the of abductions the Nigerian Mali (Jessica Obilum); the Indian Amba (Alpa Banker), whose dream of attending M.I.T. ends with her brutal kidnapping; and the Northern Californian Sara (Kelly Washington), who was raised in a Catholic orphanage after fleeing with her younger sister from an abusive father and a dysfunctional family. Anne Archer plays the role of the kind Mother Monica, and Ashley Judd is Diane, an angelic social worker on the surface, but a sadistic accomplice to the traffickers, who betrays the trust of young Sara. It was disappointing that Judd's character was never fully developed to learn what was her underlying "story" that led her to such a depraved existence. At a key juncture in the film, Mali, Amba, and Sara are forced to live out a nightmare when they are united in Houston. It is at this point that the film becomes more of a "let's-make-a-break-for-it" thriller than an exposé. One of the most shocking moments of film was the completely unexpected betrayal of young Sara by Judd's character Diane. But one of the most uplifting moments was Mali's identification of "juju," the sacred spirits that will inspire the young hostages to persevere and eventually triumph over their oppressors. According to Mali, the spirits "keep you safe when trouble comes." And there was plenty of troubled exposed in their story. This was an earnest and indeed terrifying film that succeeded in raising awareness about an important topic. It even provided a hotline number in the closing credits.

To all of you bright spectators that rated this movie in the low 5's: do you understand anything this movie is about? It is not about cinematography or actors performance. It tries to show you one of the many problems our society has to deal with, beyond all the other major challenges. Money and sex. Are we tackling it? Do we care? Probably not according to the geniuses ratings. After thousands of years of human social behavior, have we learned anything on how to respect human life and life in general? Shame on you all. Make me a favor: look at the movie again, this time from your soul and heart. Maybe you'll change your thinking and rating.

I finished this movie because a) it is based on a true story so I want to see how it unfolds. And b) it is hilariously bad. I should give it more stars just for comedic value. I have seen school project films executed better.

The topic of human trafficking is a horribly disturbing one. So why did this movie feel almost silly instead of serious? In the first parts of the movie, a woman has acid dumped on her face, another has her virginity sold, and a group of young woman are sold by someone they trusted to traffickers. It's awful stuff, but it always felt very cliché and more like a TV movie than a theatrical one... As in, this is what bad guys do and say, and this is how vulnerable yet tough women find their resilience by carrying around stuffed animals and bonding with each other in between rapes.... For a movie in a similar vein, I recommend the mini-series Human Trafficking with Mira Sorvino. That actually WAS made for TV, but it's superior to this movie.

Just because the subject is a very serious topic doesn't make the actual movie good. The message is definitely one that needs to get out there and reach people but the execution was poor. It came across more like a Lifetime network movie with the over the top acting and rushed ending. A subject this serious deserves a several-part mini-series to accurately tell the story.

11 March 2018: This is an excellent internet flick that every man, woman and young teenage girls should be made to watch. The entire cast was good. I have seen a few of these types of films based on real life cases and what bothers me and I can't understand is how and why some women can actually be involved in helping to enslave women. It is very sad, men I got it, but women I don't get it. I did Not like that the cute African actress, Jessica Obilom got caught and was thrown back into sex slavery.

Probably underrated. This, a fairly decent story of how three women survived sex trafficking and their experience at a "ranch" in Texas.

I quit at approximately 27 min. Just lost interest. Human trafficking is sick and disgusting and wrong on so many levels but the story they tried to tell (again, I quit after 27 minutes) just sucked. Poor directing. If I'm not mistaken, Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite was a bartender, also the villain from Cobra is in it (which actually adds bonus points IMO.) Scene after scene of women of different races being beaten and bound by rope or duct tape or whatever crying or laying dormant was just depressing. If the director thought those scenes would help open the world's eyes to a serious problem, he did a bad job. Tell a good story with a good script that doesn't offend the viewer and makes people aware, and is also smart, suspenseful, and well told. Trafficked did not do this. If this movie's goal was to shed a light on a disturbing industry it failed. Bad script, bad acting. Just ugly and poorly made. Do not recommend.

Why? Because this story goes on every day in every major city in every country and these women and children are abused by people who are nothing more than sub-human. It is a wake up call for the world to stamp out this awful and disgusting trade.