Human Trafficking (miniseries)

Last updated
Human Trafficking
Human Trafficking (miniseries) poster.jpg
Original release U.S. DVD cover art
Genre Drama
Crime
Written byCarol Doyle
Agatha Dominik
Directed by Christian Duguay
Starring Mira Sorvino
Donald Sutherland
Robert Carlyle
Remy Girard
Theme music composerNormand Corbiel
Country of originCanada
Original languageEnglish
Production
EditorsGaetan Huot
Sylvain Lebel
Running time176 minutes
Original release
Network Lifetime Television
ReleaseOctober 24 (2005-10-24) –
October 25, 2005 (2005-10-25)

Human Trafficking is a television miniseries about an American Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent going undercover to stop an organization from trafficking people, and shows the struggles of three trafficked women. It premiered in the United States on Lifetime Television on October 24 and 25, 2005 and was broadcast in Canada on Citytv on January 2 and 3, 2006. It stars Mira Sorvino, Donald Sutherland, Rémy Girard, and Robert Carlyle.

Contents

Plot

In Prague, Czech Republic, single mother Helena (Isabelle Blais) is seduced by a successful, handsome man and travels with him to spend a weekend in Vienna, Austria. He then sells her to a human trafficking ring and she is brought to New York City to work as a sex slave. In Kyiv, Ukraine, sixteen-year-old Nadia (Laurence Leboeuf) enters a modelling competition, without her father's knowledge. She is selected by the bogus model agency to travel to New York with the other selected candidates, where she is forced into a life of sexual slavery. Nadia and Helena are placed in the same house in Washington and become friends.

In Manila, Philippines, twelve-year-old American tourist Annie Gray (Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse) is abducted in front of her mother in a busy street by sex traffickers. She is forced into a child brothel which primarily services sex tourists, overseen by an Australian man, Tommy.

In common, the girls become victims of a powerful international network of sex traffickers led by the powerful Sergei Karpovich (Robert Carlyle).

In New York, after the third death of young Eastern European prostitutes, Russian-American NYPD Detective Kate Morozov (Mira Sorvino) suspects that these women are being "trafficked" by human trafficking gangs. Kate becomes a Special Agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under her new boss, Bill Meehan (Donald Sutherland), the Special Agent-In-Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's New York Field Office.

At a party worked by Sergei's girls, Nadia attempts escape but is caught. As punishment, Helena is moved to a location in New York City.

Kate busts a salon where girls are being trafficked from the basement. One of the rescued girls is Helena. She tells Kate about her daughter in Prague, who is successfully rescued by Czech police before Karpovich's men can abduct her. Helena also mentions Sergei Karpovich and implores Kate to find Nadia. However, Helena is killed by a sniper bullet shortly after being moved to protective custody.

In Manila, Annie's mother remains to search for her daughter while her husband returns to the US. Meanwhile, Annie is held at a child brothel, awaiting transportation to the Middle East. She manages to call her mother and they overhear Tommy talking in the background. They later identify Tommy on the street and the brothel is identified by the police.

In Kyiv, Nadia's father Viktor stresses about Nadia's disappearance. He locates details of the modelling agency and infiltrates the organisation by bonding with one of Karpovich's men. He is sent to Mexico City to help transport another shipment of girls. He is eventually sent to Washington, where he and Nadia are secretly reunited.

Using information from Helena, Kate locates the Washington brothel. While Nadia is away, ICE raid the brothel. Kate chases Viktor but when he mentions he is trying to rescue his daughter, she lets him escape. Nadia and Viktor are reunited in New York City.

Karpovich gives the name of the Manila brothel to his doctor. ICE raid the brothel and Dr Smith is arrested. However, Tommy is warned by a local police officer on the take and Annie and the other children are smuggled out just in time. The doctor gives the authorities Karpovich's name. Meanwhile, Annie and the other children are locked in a shipping container, awaiting their transportation. Due to missing paperwork and Tommy's execution, the container is abandoned on the docks.

Having no luck finding any new leads, Kate poses as a client on Karpovich's dating website and catches the attention of one of Karpovich's men. She pretends to travel from Moscow and is taken to the New York brothel. With Kate inside, ICE raid the building once Karpovich arrives. Karpovich is killed, along with several of his men. Nadia and Viktor are rescued.

In Manila, another of Annie's captors has a change of heart upon watching his daughter play. He calls the police and alerts them about the shipping container. Annie is rescued, along with the other children, and reunited with her parents. Karpovich's empire is dismantled, many other girls are rescued and his associates arrested.

Human Trafficking closes with images of people walking through crowded city streets, as a closing title caption announces that human trafficking is the third-most profitable criminal business in the world, with as many as 800,000 victims each year.

Cast

Production

The miniseries was produced by Muse Entertainment Enterprises for broadcast on Lifetime Television. In April 2005 Muse announced that principal photography had begun and that a Canadian broadcaster would be announced shortly. [1] The miniseries was filmed in Montreal, Bangkok, and Prague and was completed in July 2005. [2]

Reception

Human Trafficking received generally mixed to positive reviews by critics. Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times noted that Human Trafficking "avoids the seedy sensationalism that cheapens so many television depictions of the crime" and that it is "a harsh public-service message built into a clever, suspenseful thriller." [3]

Tom Shales of The Washington Post was more negative as he found the miniseries an odd subject for Lifetime to broadcast. He noted that in attempting to, "expose a worldwide scandal" Human Trafficking, "happens to expose vast amounts of flesh in the process -- exploitation about exploitation." [4]

John Doyle of The Globe and Mail was also negative towards the miniseries. He compared it to the "searing, shocking and hard to watch" CBC/Channel 4 miniseries Sex Traffic which "suggested a direct connection between the sex trade and NATO officials, and with Western corporations based in Eastern Europe. Doyle concluded that "While Human Trafficking is an international co-production with an international cast, it feels obstinately constructed to satisfy small-minded American viewers.

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryNominee(s)ResultRef.
2005
Online Film & Television Association AwardsBest MiniseriesNominated [5]
2006
 Directors Guild of Canada Awards Outstanding Television Movie/Mini-SeriesWon
Outstanding Direction – Television Movie/Mini-Series Christian Duguay Won
Outstanding Production Design – Television Movie/Mini-SeriesGuy LalandeWon
Gemini Awards Best Dramatic Mini-SeriesMichael Prupas, Christian Duguay, and
Irene Litinsky		Won
Best Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series Isabelle Blais Nominated
Best Costume DesignMariane CarterWon
Best Production Design or Art Direction in a Dramatic Program or SeriesGuy LalandeWon
Best Sound in a Dramatic ProgramLouis Gignac, Michel B. Bordeleau,
Natalie Fleurant, and Hans Peter Strobl 		Nominated
Gold Derby AwardsBest MiniseriesNominated [6]
TV Movie/Mini Lead Actor Donald Sutherland Nominated
TV Movie/Mini Lead Actress Mira Sorvino Nominated
TV Movie/Mini Supporting Actor Robert Carlyle Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television Donald SutherlandNominated [7]
Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television Mira SorvinoNominated
Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie Donald SutherlandNominated [8]
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie Robert CarlyleNominated
Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
(Original Dramatic Score) 		Normand Corbeil Nominated
Women's Image Network Awards Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a MovieRobert CarlyleWon

DVD

On October 25, 2005, Maple Pictures released a 2 disc DVD set of the mini-series in Canada, which contained interviews with the director and the five principal cast members on the second disc. [9] Echo Bridge Home Entertainment released the miniseries on a single DVD in the U.S. on May 2, 2006 with deleted scenes not shown during the airing on Lifetime, interactive resources, and scene selections. [10] The Canadian DVD is rated 14A; the U.S. release is labeled Not Rated by the MPAA due to enhanced violence of the deleted scenes.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mira Sorvino</span> American actress (born 1967)

Mira Katherine Sorvino is an American actress. She won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite (1995).

Trafficked is a 2017 American thriller drama film directed by Will Wallace and starring Ashley Judd, Sean Patrick Flanery and Anne Archer.

Prostitution is illegal in Russia. The punishment for engagement in prostitution is a fine from 1500 up to 2000 rubles. Moreover, organizing prostitution is punishable by a prison term. Prostitution remains a very serious social issue in Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Justice Mission</span> Non-profit organisation in the US

International Justice Mission is an international, non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization focused on human rights, law and law enforcement. Founded in 1997 by lawyer Gary Haugen of the United States, it is based in Washington, D.C. All IJM employees are required to be practicing Christians; 94% are nationals of the countries they work in.

Forced prostitution, also known as involuntary prostitution or compulsory prostitution, is prostitution or sexual slavery that takes place as a result of coercion by a third party. The terms "forced prostitution" or "enforced prostitution" appear in international and humanitarian conventions, such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, but have been inconsistently applied. "Forced prostitution" refers to conditions of control over a person who is coerced by another to engage in sexual activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in the Philippines</span>

Human trafficking and the prostitution of children has been a significant issue in the Philippines, often controlled by organized crime syndicates. Human trafficking is a crime against humanity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking</span> Trade of humans for exploitation

Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in the United States</span>

In the United States, human trafficking tends to occur around international travel hubs with large immigrant populations, notably in California, Texas, and Georgia. Those trafficked include young children, teenagers, men, and women; victims can be domestic citizens or foreign nationals.

Sex trafficking in Thailand is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Kingdom of Thailand. Thailand is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sex trafficking. The sexual exploitation of children in Thailand is a problem. In Thailand, close to 40,000 children under the age of 16 are believed to be in the sex trade, working in clubs, bars, and brothels.

Nigeria is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to trafficking in persons including forced labour and forced prostitution. The U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2 Watchlist" in 2017. Trafficked people, particularly women and children, are recruited from within and outside the country's borders – for involuntary domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, street hawking, domestic servitude, mining, begging etc. Some are taken from Nigeria to other West and Central African countries, primarily Gabon, Cameroon, Ghana, Chad, Benin, Togo, Niger, Burkina Faso, and the Gambia, for the same purposes. Children from other West African states like Benin, Togo, and Ghana – where Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) rules allow for easy entry – are also forced to work in Nigeria, and some are subjected to hazardous jobs in Nigeria's granite mines. Europe, especially Italy and Russia, the Middle East and North Africa, are prime destinations for forced prostitution.Nigerians accounted for 21% of the 181,000 migrants that arrived in Italy through the Mediterranean in 2016 and about 21,000 Nigerian women and girls have been trafficked to Italy since 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agape International Missions</span> American non-profit organisation

Agape International Missions (AIM) is a nonprofit, non-denominational, non-governmental organization working to rescue, heal and empower survivors of sex trafficking in Cambodia. It has staff in California and Southeast Asia and carries out housing, education, health, employment, rehabilitation, and community care initiatives in Cambodia. The AIM Apparel is a retail site that sells jewelry and other products made by survivors and supports the organization's initiatives. AIM received GuideStar USA, Inc.'s gold seal of transparency in 2019. Charity Navigator gave AIM the highest rating of 4 out of 4 stars and a score of 100 out of 100 for accountability & transparency.

Operation Stormy Nights was an early major anti-human-trafficking operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Operations took place in Oklahoma and brought to light organized crime networks trafficking female minors along United States Numbered Highways, where the girls were forced into prostitution to service truck drivers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunita Danuwar</span>

Sunita Danuwar, is a Nepalese human rights activist and the founder of Sunita Foundation and Shakti Samuha, a non-governmental organization based in Nepal formed by women rescued from brothels in India that works against the trafficking of women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in Nevada</span>

Human trafficking in Nevada is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced labor as it occurs in the state of Nevada, and it is widely recognized as a modern-day form of slavery. It includes "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power, or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking in the United States</span>

Sex trafficking in the United States is a form of human trafficking which involves reproductive slavery or commercial sexual exploitation as it occurs in the United States. Sex trafficking includes the transportation of persons by means of coercion, deception and/or force into exploitative and slavery-like conditions. It is commonly associated with organized crime.

Sex trafficking in China is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the People's Republic of China. It is a country of origin, destination, and transit for sexually trafficked persons.

Sex trafficking in Myanmar is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Myanmar is primarily a source and transit country for sexually trafficked persons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking in Vietnam</span>

Sex trafficking in Vietnam is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Vietnam is a source and, to a lesser extent, destination country for sexually trafficked persons.

Sex trafficking in Laos is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Laos is primarily an origin country for sexually trafficked persons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking in Cambodia</span>

Sex trafficking in Cambodia is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Kingdom of Cambodia. Cambodia is a country of origin, destination and transit for sex trafficked persons.

References

  1. ↑ "Muse Entertainment Enterprises Announces the Start of Principal Photography of HUMAN TRAFFICKING" (PDF) (Press release). Muse Entertainment Enterprises. April 22, 2005. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
  2. ↑ "Productions: Human Trafficking". Muse Entertainment Enterprises . Retrieved January 16, 2011.
  3. ↑ Stanley, Alessandra (October 24, 2005). "Selling Sex, That Renewable Resource". The New York Times (registration required). Retrieved January 16, 2011.
  4. ↑ Shales, Tom (October 24, 2005). "'Human Trafficking': Exploiting Misery, And Creating It". The Washington Post . Retrieved January 16, 2011.
  5. ↑ "9th Annual TV Awards (2005)". Online Film & Television Association. Retrieved June 21, 2024.
  6. ↑ "2006 GOLDDERBY TV AWARDS". Gold Derby Awards. March 7, 2016. Retrieved June 21, 2024.
  7. ↑ "Human Trafficking". Golden Globe Awards . Retrieved June 21, 2024.
  8. ↑ "Human Trafficking". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences . Retrieved June 21, 2024.
  9. ↑ "Human Trafficking". Amazon.ca . Retrieved January 16, 2011.
  10. ↑ "Human Trafficking (2005)". Amazon. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.