This weekend I went to the Orlando screening of Nefarious: Merchant of Souls, a new documentary produced by Exodus Cry about human trafficking and the sex industry.
The producers filmed in 19 countries in North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
The film includes dozens of riveting interviews with trafficking victims and those who help them--and those who buy and sell them. It weaves a picture of the complex cultural, economic, social, religious, and political factors that can influence trafficking.
I've seen a lot of films and documentaries about trafficking, but I always learn something new. For example, I had no idea that 10% of the current population of Moldova has been trafficked. That's a shocking statistic.
Or that in some parts of Asia when a girl is born it's actually cause for rejoicing (unlike in other parts of Asia where boys are more valued than girls) -- because parents know their daughter will generate a steady supply of income when she's old enough to be trafficked.
"Old enough" means about 4 years old, by the way.
There are a lot of graphic images in Nefarious, but to me the most horrendous was a group of fathers in Cambodia playing cards and drinking--which they do all day, every day--all funded by selling their young daughters to sex tourists.
The fathers don't need to work because their daughters do.
I'm all about getting angry over the issue of human trafficking, and Nefarious will make you angry. I strongly encourage you to see it. The Incurable Fanatics* screening tour dates and cities are here.
* "If to be feelingly alive to the suffering of my fellow creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large." -- William Wilberforce, 19th-century British politician and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade.
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