In California, when the teenager orphan Sara (Kelly Washington) is eighteen years old, she needs to leave the foster home of Mother Monica (Anne Archer) and her sister Natalie (Madison Wolfe) behind. The social worker Diane (Ashley Judd) offers a waitress training on a cruise ship in Houston. However, she sells Sara and the other girls to human traffickers. In India, the upper-class Amba (Alpa Banker) is with a friend in a bar and rejects the harassment of the criminal Raj Singh (Mayank Bhatter). While heading back home, Amba and her friend are forced to stop their car and Raj throws acid on them and sells Amba as sex slave. Sara and Amba travel to a brothel in Texas owned by the dealers Simon (Sean Patrick Flanery) and the powerful Christian (Patrick Duffy). Sara and Amba befriends the experienced Nigerian Mali (Jessica Obilom) that advises them how to survive in the brothel. Simon tells the sex slaves that they have a debt of 500 men each and after having these encounters, they will be free to go. But when they realize that Simon is lying, Sara decides to flee and invites Amba and Mali to go with her.

"Trafficked" is a powerful film based on a true story of human trafficking, which is one of the nastiest crimes in the world. The screenplay is very well written and with great performances. The theft of organs, arms and drugs trafficking are also shown in this film, but the main focus is the trafficking of sex slaves. Brazil has many missing persons and probably many of them are kidnapped or lured for human trafficking. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Tráfico de Mulheres" ("Women Trafficking")

Just because the subject is a very serious topic doesn't make the actual movie good. The message is definitely one that needs to get out there and reach people but the execution was poor. It came across more like a Lifetime network movie with the over the top acting and rushed ending. A subject this serious deserves a several-part mini-series to accurately tell the story.

Based on the book by Harvard professor Siddharth Kara, which he adapted into the screenplay, this film tells the horrific story of human trafficking in the modern age. As indicated in the film, there are millions of victims of the trafficking with as many as 100,000 in the United States of America. According to Kara, as an industry, human trafficking accounted for the staggering figure of $100 billion passing hands within a single year.

The film had an ambitious reach as it depicted the of abductions the Nigerian Mali (Jessica Obilum); the Indian Amba (Alpa Banker),whose dream of attending M.I.T. ends with her brutal kidnapping; and the Northern Californian Sara (Kelly Washington),who was raised in a Catholic orphanage after fleeing with her younger sister from an abusive father and a dysfunctional family.

Anne Archer plays the role of the kind Mother Monica, and Ashley Judd is Diane, an angelic social worker on the surface, but a sadistic accomplice to the traffickers, who betrays the trust of young Sara. It was disappointing that Judd's character was never fully developed to learn what was her underlying "story" that led her to such a depraved existence.

At a key juncture in the film, Mali, Amba, and Sara are forced to live out a nightmare when they are united in Houston. It is at this point that the film becomes more of a "let's-make-a-break-for-it" thriller than an exposé.

One of the most shocking moments of film was the completely unexpected betrayal of young Sara by Judd's character Diane. But one of the most uplifting moments was Mali's identification of "juju," the sacred spirits that will inspire the young hostages to persevere and eventually triumph over their oppressors. According to Mali, the spirits "keep you safe when trouble comes." And there was plenty of troubled exposed in their story.

This was an earnest and indeed terrifying film that succeeded in raising awareness about an important topic. It even provided a hotline number in the closing credits.