Trafficked

Last updated
Trafficked
Directed by Will Wallace
Written by Siddharth Kara
Produced byVicente Aldape
Conroy Kanter
Siddharth Kara
Will Wallace
Starring
Cinematography Thomas L. Callaway
Edited byJustin Thomas Billings
Music byDavid Das
Release date
  • October 6, 2017 (2017-10-06)(limited)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$19,698 [1]

Trafficked is a 2017 American thriller drama film directed by Will Wallace and starring Ashley Judd, Sean Patrick Flanery and Anne Archer. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Plot

In California, Sara is eighteen and has to leave her foster home; she is offered training to be a waitress working on cruise ships. She accepts, but instead is sold to sex traffickers by Diane. In India, young teen Amba is partying with her friends when a guy she'd rejected tries to hit on her again. He is thrown out. On her way back home, he throws acid on her and her friend. Her friend is facially disfigured and Amba's hand is scarred. Then he forces Amba to be sold into sex slavery. Sara and Amba both wind up together in a Texas brothel with Mali, from Nigeria, and are raped repeatedly. Mali tells them to do what they can to survive, and not to fight back. Amba, hopeless, listens, but Sara resists and is beaten and drugged. Amba gets pregnant and Simon (Sean Patrick Flanery), the owner of the brothel, finds out and makes her take pills to have an abortion. She loses a lot of blood and Mali pleads with Simon to call a doctor.

He does, and Sara discreetly begs the doctor for some sleeping pills "for her friend." He relents.

Sara plots with Amba and Mali to escape. She tells them that Simon is going away with the rest of his men for the night, and only Max, one of the guards, will be left. Sara says that they could catch a train nearby. Mali agrees, but Amba, still depressed over her abortion, says that she won't leave. She thinks her family would be too ashamed of her when they find out what she's been doing.

Sara puts in the sleeping pills in Max's drink, and once he's asleep, she sneaks out with Mali. Amba changes her mind and goes with them. Sara grabs the keys to the front gate from Max, but he awakens and chokes her. Mali hits him and knocks him out, and the three girls run.

They get to the train station, but are too late; the train has already left. Mali trips and injures her ankle. Meanwhile, Simon has found out they escaped and runs back. Gameboy, another guard, searches the station, which is also a truck stop, and hears Mali's yells of pain. Mali tells Amba and Sara to run away, and they finally do, reluctant to leave her. Mali is captured and Sara and Amba run and hide in a truck. They are taken to a bus station, where they buy two tickets. They get in the bus and see Simon, who has tracked them there and is searching the buses. They duck and hide and manage to evade him. Sara is reunited with her younger sister and Amba calls her family, who are overjoyed to hear from her. Simon and Diane are arrested, along with everyone else involved in trafficking. As for Mali, she is shown with a group of prostitutes, holding one of them and crying as the one she was holding is taken away.

Cast

Controversy

Actresses alleged that they were bruised in an unusually physical audition; one alleged that a simulated rape scene was performed on her without warning, and the director, Will Wallace, was removed from the project during post production over a disagreement involving the depiction of rape. [6]

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 29% based on 7 reviews, with an average rating of 4.3/10. [7] Jeffrey M. Anderson of Common Sense Media awarded the film one star out of five. [8]

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References

  1. ↑ "Trafficked (2017)". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved December 23, 2021.
  2. ↑ Erbland, Kate (27 September 2017). "Ashley Judd's Fact-Based Human Trafficking Film Sets United Nations Premiere — Watch". IndieWire . Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  3. ↑ Abele, Robert (12 October 2017). "Sex slavery shouldn't be seen as erotic as it appears in 'Trafficked'". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  4. ↑ McDonagh, Maitland (6 October 2017). "Film Review: Trafficked". Film Journal International . Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  5. ↑ Scheck, Frank (5 October 2017). "'Trafficked': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  6. ↑ "Actresses Detail Groping, Simulated Rape in Audition for Ashley Judd Sex-Trafficking Film". The Hollywood Reporter . 4 December 2017.
  7. ↑ "Trafficked". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  8. ↑ Anderson, Jeffrey M. (6 October 2017). "Trafficked". Common Sense Media . Retrieved 24 March 2018.
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