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Movies about Human Trafficking

// August 7th, 2009 // Movies, Projects, miso film

Since we’ll be shooting A Place Of Peace in December this year, we did some research on two levels.

I got involved into this matter since my last short movie Greener Pastures in 2006, during ongoing screenings for school classes or discussions and the book Joana researched for with the authors.

I had some discussions with Joana about real stories of human trafficking – the different personalities of victims and how they deal with what happens to them, their environment, the madames, the whole system behind Human Trafficking, hard facts, numbers and statistics, etc.

So while writing the screenplay i already gathered quite a solid background on Human Trafficking – but knowing the hard facts and real stories, or convey the emotions without boring exposition, insterts or dull dialogue with a movie is a whole different thing.

As screenplay author and director of this movie i had to do another kind of research – how would others deal with this matter? I had to watch movies about Human Trafficking.

Since I’m a movie nerd anyway it was not a big deal for me “having” to watch movies, films with stronger stuff are nothing new for me either – still these movies i watched have been really heavy – strengthening my urge to do this short movie on that topic.

Besides the three movies I write about here, you can find a list of movies about Human Trafficking here or here.

Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking is a mini series of two 90-minute episodes and was produced for TV. In my opinion it takes some time to get into the first episode, although the first scenes are quite emotional, the movie is somehow torn apart between the different storylines.
After you got into the story and got familiar with the different characters it’s quite emotional to watch what happens to all of them.

Nevertheless i think if the makers would have taken a little more time to introduce us to the characters and their environment this movie(s) would have a stronger impact. In my opinion this should not just be a mini series of two episodes, but a full series of 12 or even 24 episodes.   IMDb Link

Trade

Trade was directed by the german director Marco Kreuzpaintner, and while it is a good movie it is a little bit too “straight”.
The little girl gets abducted and her 17 years old brother and a Texan cop are searching for her.

Don’t get me wrong, it is a good movie and I was emotionally involved, but in my opinion it is for that matter a little bit too “Hollywoodish”.   IMDb Link

Lilja 4-Ever

Lilja 4-Ever was directed by the swedish director Lukas Moodysson and is in my opinion the most realistic movie of the three.
Although Trade and Human Trafficking are really good movies and emotionally intense – watching Lilja 4-Ever was one of the most intense movies I have ever seen.

It´s not because it is extremely brutal – the movie doesn´t feature heavy nudity or brutality, but it simply feels so real. You believe everything you see, the desperate lives of the russian teenagers in their surroundings, the dreams and desires of these young people, and their struggle for a normal life.

Probably the hardest part of this movie is that we are solely following the protagonist – Lilja. Unlike the other two movies it`s not about the people searching for her and trying to rescue her, it`s just Lilja against her miserable life.

After watching this movie I felt like I´ve got a huge weight on my chest, this is most certainly amongst the best and most realistic movies I have seen.   IMDb Link

I would highly recommend watching those three movies, those things happen right next to you in your neighborhood without you even noticing.

This posting is cross-posted on the website of A Place Of Peace here.