Captive souls: Modern slavery film screens in tandem with STC human trafficking conference

In a country with strong laws concerning equality and justice, it’s hard to imagine that slavery might still exist, but it does.

Thousands of men, women and children are bought, sold and taken advantage of every year, and it happens right under our noses.

Such is the subject of The Child Within, an independent film about human trafficking that screens Thursday at McAllen’s Cine El Rey.

The Child Within focuses on the lives of three young women, each from Bulgaria, Belarus and China. The women leave their families overseas and come to New York City, believing promises of a better life in the United States. Upon their arrival, however, the women find themselves at the mercy of human traffickers, who turn them into sex workers and keep them in a brothel. The women are also pregnant, which means extra money for the traffickers: once the babies are born, the traffickers plan to sell the babies.

The story was inspired by true events, said executive producer Scott Elliot Mann, but is not a true story itself. The film’s writer, Luchia Dragosh, began writing the script in the spring of 2005. The inspiration for the film came when Dragosh read an article in a Bulgarian paper about sex workers who sold their babies out of desperation. She was horrified, not because the women were so desperate, but because the article tried to rationalize the situation.

“She was so appalled that she started writing a script, and in a couple weeks she cracked it out,” Mann said in a telephone interview. “She did a lot of research about these women, who come here under false pretenses. They are totally isolated without knowing the language. There is a whole criminal network set up to take advantage of these women, and this is happening in this country.”

The statistics are certainly daunting: the U.S. Department of Justice Web site reports “an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders … and the trade is growing.” Mann, who uses his company Blue Flower Productions to finance films that deal with human nature, decided to fund The Child Within because the subject matter deals with both physical and mental abuse.

“Human trafficking destroys human potential,” he said. “Traffickers view the mind as totally lacking in potential. They ignore the depth and the richness of the human mind. These are people that undergo a terrible transformation. They live in a world with no respect and no dignity. (The film) shows what it is like to live in that type of world.”

Although the film debuted to industry professionals in Los Angeles March 3, this is the film’s first public viewing. The film is being shown in conjunction with a human trafficking conference that runs Wednesday through Friday, April 20 at South Texas College in McAllen.

According to Mann and Vahé Mansourian, who owns the rights to the film, all proceeds from the screening will be donated to South Texas College.

After the McAllen screening, Mann said he hopes to showcase the film in other cities around the country. He thinks audiences will appreciate the story, he said, because of the character’s determination to survive.

“This is a bit like a war film,” he said. “Human traffickers are declaring war on humanity, and this film is about people striking back at them. It’s not a film about, ‘Let’s feel so sorry for the victims.’ It’s a film that celebrates these victims who take a stand for the human soul. This will resonate with the audience, with people who have a fighting spirit.”

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Kate Lohnes covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4427. For this and other local stories, visit www.themonitor.com.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Thursday

WHERE: Cine El Rey, 311 S. 17th St., McAllen

INFO: Call (213) 926-2967, or visit www.luchiav.com