Trade (2007) Review
Movie Review by Debbie Winkler
Starring: Kevin Kline, Cesar Ramos, Alicja Bachleda, Paulina Gaitan, Marco Pérez
Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner
Release Date: 23 January 2007
Language: English & Spanish (with subtitles)
Length: 120 minutes
Movie Rating: R
View Format: DVD
My Rating: 
Synopsis:
“Based on a New York Times Magazine story, this crime drama starring Kevin Kline delves into a sordid world of international sex trafficking that leads from Mexico City to a New Jersey stash house. In a bid to save kidnapped 13-year-old Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) before she’s sold into sexual slavery, her desperate brother (Cesar Ramos) teams with a Texas cop (Kline). Can they find her before she vanishes into a hellish underworld?” — Netflix.com
Review:
This movie was intense and extremely scary to watch. I am not sure how much of what they showed in the movie actually happens, but all of the events seemed so real. There is a Russian woman, Veronika (Alicja Bachleda), who thinks she is going to the US to get a job and to try and build a better life for her and her infant son. But she is tricked, mistakenly gives up her passport and disappears into the system. From there, she is repeatedly raped by the traffickers, as well as the men they need to bribe along the way. She is transported with 3 children, 2 little girls and a boy. One of the girls is 13-year-old Adriana (Paulina Gaitan), who was taken off of the early morning streets of Mexico while she was riding her bike. As a virgin, she is valuable property and no one is allowed to penetrate her, but she is drugged and used in other ways. The story is mainly focused on these 2 females, who, while separated by age, form a strong bond as they endure the humiliations and trials that they face along the way as they are smuggled from Mexico into New Jersey. Both of their characters seemed very real and completely heartbreaking.
The most unbelievable part was the brother’s, Jorge (Cesar Ramos), role. What are the chances that he has the criminal connections to track down where his sister is being held and then is able to follow her across the country? Still, as unbelievable as his role was, he was necessary to pull Kevin Kline’s character in and show the legal side of things and how the US reacts to this crime. There are several instances where the women have an opportunity to get assistance from police and border patrol, but they are not believed and they are denied aid. This is what makes the movie so scary. How many people disappear and are trafficked into the country? Facts at the end of the movie say that 100,000 -- 150,000 are trafficked across the US borders every year. One million people are trafficked across worldwide borders every year. Another quote says that if you cannot find humans sold into sexual slavery in the US, that you are not looking.
This is a very intense and disturbing movie and I know that the director (Marco Kreuzpaintner) meant it to be that way. By focusing on the 2 females that were kidnapped -- both in different ways and from different backgrounds -- this movie shows the human trafficking scene in a very personal way. These people became real to me -- both the villains and the victims were real and had faces and back stories. Those who sold the people just see it as a regular business. Just like selling bags of coffee or sugar, they just sell people. They are able to compartmentalize and cut off all emotions so that they don’t feel sorry for their victims. They also showed some of the purchasers of some of the children and that was horrifying as well. How do you hear about auctions like these? How do you know where to go to find children who will fulfill your twisted desires? It was very hard to watch, but I almost felt like I owed my 2 hours of discomfort to the victims of this horrifying crime.
This movie is well made and well acted. I feel like it was made to try and educated Americans to the fact that this is not a crime you only see in other countries, but that it happens here and in normal, suburban neighborhoods. This movie will probably haunt me for a long time, which is not always a bad thing, as it is so easy to forget the suffering that other people go through every day as I live in relative comfort and safety in my little apartment. If you take the time to watch this film, be prepared for it to impact you and really disturb you. You will probably walk away with a sick feeling in your stomach and a heightened awareness of what is going on around you.
Content:
This movies contains several intense scenes featuring rape, forced sex, child sex, sexual slavery, strong language, violence, drug use, kidnapping, and other intense and disturbing images. Not for the faint of heart. Recommended for ages 18 and up.
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