Human Trafficking

Dealing with one of the third most serious international offenses, the mini series stars Donald Sutherland as the head of the investigation surrounding deaths of young hookers in the U.S. Girls from many different locations are duped into the trade of sex slavery - through the glitter and glamour of modelling; the attractions of an exotic trip with a loving man; plain abductions; exploitation of family's poverty - the list is endless. But all their immediate fate is one - slavery in one of Sergei Karpovich's brothels.
The movie shows just few of the many ways the women are exploited, insulted, raped and stripped of their honour and humanity. The incidents catch the attention of Mira Sorvino, who confidently sells herself to Donald to recruit her on the case. From there, she starts to crack down on Sergei's empire bit by bit.
The series focuses of few main women - Helena, Nadia and Annie. Helena is from Czech Republic living for her little daughter. She encourages attentions from a man who speaks up for her in a bar and finds herself thrown into the web. She keeps herself sane by thinking of the danger that would await her daughter, if she did otherwise. She is the first to be rescued by the team, but is shot dead by Sergei's sniper. Her daughter Ivanka is brought to the States and kept safe.
Nadia is a 16-year-old motherless child, who is almost strangled by her father's safe and sedentary lifestyle. When a New York modelling opportunity presents itself, it is more than enticing and she hides it from her father and leaves the country. Her only solace is Helena's friendship. She tries to escape unsuccessfully. Eventually, she reunites with her father, when he pretends to be one of the bad guys, looking for her.
Annie is touring Philippines with her parents and is rudely abducted by the local child brothel owner's men. Her parents try very hard to find seek her out, but with the local authorities helping the bad guys, there is little hope for them. Annie's mother continues to look for her. When she is just about to leave the country to save her breaking marriage, Annie gets an opportunity to call her. With some advertising along with her not-for-profit agency, she tracks the brothel owner, but he has escaped with an insider tip off. Eventually, she and all the kids with her are discovered in the container they were going to be shipped off in.
Mira's final plan is to catch the men red handed with some undercover operation. Her cover is almost blown off, when Sergei finds her too old for the trade, but eventually they catch him - dead.
Touching story for a tear-tank like me, especially scenes that bring back happy recollections and families together. But definitely an important and scary topic to think about. I have been sheltered all my life and I often wonder why my parents are so strict. Looking at this, I can only side my parents in their protective arguments. Yet, I think it is what such protectiveness that eventually leads children to run away from them and classic example in the movie was Nadia's case. Had their been understanding more than blind prohibition, the situation could have been better for the young teenager and her father. Still after watching the movie, I can almost hear my parents' sermon about how bad the world is, instead of seeing what they could do differently.
It is sad to think that even after so much progress and advancement, women and children have to be fearful and wary of men. Even though this need to exert sexual force is prevalent among other living species, for procreational reasons, humans are probably the only ones, in my opinion, who do this for nothing more than sadistic pleasure and profitable reasons. These men could have been nothing more than blood leeches and death for the Sergei character in the series, was not even an equal intensity of punishment to the amount of destruction he had inflicted on the many lives he 'ruled' over.