Sold To Be Screened In Kathmandu

Kathmandu,17 November,2014: Hollywood film “Sold”, directed by Academy award winning director Jeffrey D Brown, is being screened at Kumari Hall in Kathmandu on Tuesday. Brown, along with the film’s producer, Jane Charles, and its international cast will be present at the one-off screening. The film makers have partnered with Childreach International to shed light on the issue of child trafficking.

Based on a novel by the same name, the movie tells the story of a thirteen-year-old Nepali girl sold into prostitution in Mumbai, India. At the press meet organised in the Capital on Sunday, Brown said that he wanted the audience to look at sexual slavery through one girl’s eyes.

“We hear and read that millions of girls are sold into prostitution, but those are just stats to most people. We hope to touch and change people’s hearts through the film,” said Brown, who won an Academy Award in 1985 for a short film, “Molly’s Pilgrim”.

Despite strong laws against human trafficking and prostitution, thousands of children are sold into prostitution every year. The most cited figure is from a 2001 study conducted by International Labour Organisation, which put the number of children trafficked out of the country at 12,000 every year.

“I have been to two war zones as a filmmaker, but nothing prepared me to face children who were already dead inside, who were betrayed multiple times,” said Brown, as he recalled his experience researching child trafficking in Nepal and India before shooting the film.

One of the cast members, Seirah Royin, who plays the role of a manager of a hope house for rescued children in the film, said that her own pre-shooting research showed her how ripped

of dignity the women had to feel on the streets of red-light districts of Mumbai. “After 10 at night, everything I knew about an independent Indian woman was gone,” said Royin.

Poverty is often blamed for human trafficking and sexual slavery. “But lack of information, gender-based discrimination, illiteracy and lack of gainful employment are also strong factors,” said Tomoo Hazumi, Unicef country representative of Nepal, at the event.

Producer Charles hoped that the film would raise awareness and nip the problem at its bud. “A lot of focus is on rescuing trafficked children. What we need to do is stress education for children so that they are never duped into slavery,” said Charles.

The film will be released worldwide in March next year.

Source:ekantipur