Justice needs a hero.
Plot
Trade of Innocents is a 2012 American made thriller independent film written and directed by Christopher Bessette and starring Dermot Mulroney, Mira Sorvino, John Billingsley and Trieu Tran.
In the back streets of a tourist town in present-day Cambodia, we find a filthy cinder block room; a bed with soiled sheets; a little girl waits for the next man to use her. Alex, a human trafficking investigator plays the role of her next customer as he negotiates with the pimp for the use of the child. Claire, Alex’s wife, is caught up in the flow of her new life in Southeast Asia and her role as a volunteer in an aftercare shelter for rescued girls. She, and Alex both still are dealing with their grief of losing a child years earlier. As both of them struggle in their own way to overcome the pain of their past and realities of child exploitation where they now live and work, they find themselves being pulled together into the lives of local neighborhood girls, whose freedom and dignity are threatened.
Trade of Innocents Review
Trade of Innocents does an incredible job of being a powerful drama without being salacious. The plot is clear and well developed. The acting is excellent. That said, it’s sometimes too talky in the scenes that tell rather than show. Trade of Innocents is an important movie and not only worth seeing but also entertaining.
Trade of Innocents: Do Innocent Young Girls Matter?
Trade of Innocents is a dramatic movie about the sex trade in Cambodia. Alex Becker and his wife, Claire, work for a rescue organization to stop sex trafficking in Cambodia. Sex slavery and trafficking pervades Cambodian society, including the government. Parents believe children have to provide for them, even if children have to become sex slaves. An American pedophile tells the head of the local trafficking ring that he wants a young 7-year-old girl. So, the trafficker attempts to kidnap the little girl who’s the granddaughter of the man who owns the shop under the apartment where the Beckers live. Alex leads several raids on the trafficking gang, but someone tips them off. Eventually, the trafficker traps Claire and the little girl at Angkor Wat. Will Alex get there in time and save them?
Trade of Innocents Official Trailer
"Trade of Innocents is as much a piece of social-justice campaigning as it is a work unto itself, an important fact to remember when considering its many flaws."