Sold

Child trafficking happens all over the world--even in my backyard, Sonoma County--as I learned during one of the preview discussions after Sold. We live in a world where the vulnerable are taken advantage of ("Oh, your daughter will have a good job in the city"), and believe what they are told despite evidence to the contrary (elections). Sold helps us touch our compassion and caring with its specificity and hope. The film takes a difficult subject and makes it accessible without beating us over the head as a documentary might. It's also visually beautiful as it opens the edgy worlds of sex-for-money and trafficking in India and Nepal.Highly recommended!

Sold is an excellent movie that discusses the issues of human trafficking in South Asia through following the story of one young girl.

While at times it was hard to watch due to the nature of the scenes and the age of the actors, it opened my eyes to a reality that is happening to millions of people everyday.

Shot in Nepal and India the beauty of the landscapes contrasts with the horrors of the storyline (however, there are some light hearted scenes to give the audience a break).

This movie does more that just tell a story it is a vehicle for change as it sheds a light on one of the biggest human rights issues of our time : Human trafficking.

This movie was disturbing and uncomfortable.

Sold centers around a 12 year old girl who ends up owing a lot of money and is sold into the life of prostitution in order to pay it back.

what was most disturbing was not what was said, but what was seen on the screen. The ease these people had taking away a child's innocent for money. The large amount of children in the Brothels. The film shows these people's comfort in the life which made me so very uncomfortable.

David Arquette and Gillian Anderson have very small roles as the white faces attempting to close down the brothel, and I must say, they were a sight for very sore eyes as it was hard to stomach a child living her life in this place.

This movie is not met to entertain at all, it is purely educational. They lay down all the facts and don't sugar coat or romance it at all.

It was a hard watch but it was worth it.

Just viewed this film at the 18th Sonoma International Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film. It is a terribly difficult film to watch as the subject matter -- the forced prostitution of a very young Nepali girl into a brothel in Calcutta, India -- is excruciating. But the film is made with love -- the young girl shares humanity with others caught in these circumstances, befriends a little boy who is a child of one of the other prostitutes, is protected by another captive……i.e. the human experience in all its squalor and splendor. Seeing the film in a festival environment was a great gift as the Q&A with some of the principals following the presentation made clear that this is not just a third world problem: we have this same problem right here in our own back yard. A friend has already begun a circle of women here in Sonoma to reach out to young women who are being used as slave prostitutes in our supposedly sublime county. The power of film to change lives! Bravo!

Seeing sex trafficking through the eyes of a once innocent girl can mobilize people and nations to stop it - that's the belief that drives this astonishing movie deep into your heart. Along the way, it slays myths: that girls and women face these dangers willingly and deserve only shame; that trading money for sex is no crime, and that the damage of sexual slavery can ever be undone. Anyone who has witnessed this searing movie will know better.

When we first meet 13-year-old Lakshmi, a bright, spirited, shyly beautiful Nepalese girl growing up in a remote mountain village, she seems far from danger. Loved by a mother who knows only self-sacrifice, Lakshmi seems destined for more. She's in school, works hard, but likes what young girls like – her kite, toe rings, sweet cakes, music, and dancing.

We see trouble, too - her stepfather drinks and gambles; her mother's prayers are no match for his addictions. We know that other village families have tin roofs, and that Lakshmi's family needs one. So begins a tale with no end.

Be brave and watch this movie. Pass it on by helping to fund SOLD's distribution. Be bolder still and help end the cycle – one life, one law, one nation at a time.