Sold

I was frightened that "Sold" might be similar to an After School Special or a Lifetime movie event. Patricia McCormick's bestseller is a fictional treatment and one in which the author writes from perspectives that are not her own. With an award-winning team at the helm, the movie never drifted into maudlin or hysterical territory. "Sold" is a fair account of difficult circumstances. Violence, including physical assault and sexual assault, is presented in a non-gratuitous manner.

Lakshmi, a young girl born into poverty, is sold by her family. As she moves from her mountain home into a crowded modern city, fantastic cinematography and music establish the obstacles before her: She's stuck in a different country without a way to get home by herself. Not everything is bleak for Lakshmi, but happy moments are undercut by her knowledge that there are few ways for her to get out alive. Outside of her prison, a non-governmental organization dedicated to freeing slaves tries to send assistance.

The real star of the movie is India: Its mixed races, classes, customs, and landscapes. India is not the only place in the world where men, women, boys and girls are bought or stolen and sold. Slavery is an international issue with various organizations rallying to end modern slavery. Today, concerned groups around the world are participating to do the important work of investigating, freeing the enslaved, prosecuting traffickers and building networks to continue the modern abolition movement. "Sold" is a part of network building, an educational piece which can be used to aid slaves -- in particular, to insist that sex slavery does exist and victims are worth freeing.

Sex slavery deserves special focus. Extramarital sexual activity is taboo in many societies, which keeps sex slaves from being able to leave sex work except in death. In America, we're not exempt from those cultural pressures. We have laws that prosecute exploitative corporate practices such as not paying workers for hours worked or specific units of work done, but sex work is illegal and a victim can be freed only to face the terrors of the prison industrial complex. Our governmental bodies still have a lot to learn when it comes to participating in the justice part of the justice system: We're good at creating systems that punish communities, but not systems that free the oppressed. "Sold" doesn't provide answers to all issues related to sex slavery, but insists that the struggle to free each other is worth the effort.