STOLEN

UK, 2011, 90 minutes. Colour.
Damian Lewis, Jessie Clayton, Gloria Oyewumi.
Directed by Justin Chadwick.

Stolen is a television film about human trafficking. It focuses on several stories, a little girl being trafficked from Nigeria with instructions how to behave in London, tearing up her passport and seemingly an orphan; a Vietnamese boy smuggled in a truck and forced to work in a marijuana plant; a girl from Eastern Europe who becomes a working slave for a hostel for men involved in various jobs from Eastern Europe; a young student with a background in the sex industry who was brought in on a Portuguese passport. The film focuses mainly on the story of the little girl, Rosemary. However, there are glimpses of the marijuana plantation and the plight of the young Asian man, the Eastern European women brought over as sex slaves as well as the young girl who has to do all the manual work, and the treatment of the woman with an invalid passport who contributes to helping Rosemary to talk to the police and identify the traffickers.

The film is held together by the work of Damian Lewis as the detective in charge of the project. He has a young daughter himself whom he gets to help him with getting information on Rosemary, to the objections of his wife.

The film moves briskly, gives glimpses rather than following through on each particular story. However, this is the kind of film that is necessary at the beginning of the 21st century because of the issues of human trafficking. Other films include Lilya 4-Ever, My Name is Justine, Trade.

The film was directed by Justin Chadwick, an actor in British television up to the year 2000 and then made the transition to television director. His feature films include The Other Boleyn Girl and The First Grader, the film about the eighty-four-year-old Kenyan man, former Mau Mau warrior, who fought for the right to go to school even at his late age.

1. The information about human trafficking in the 21st century? The statistics? Adults, children, boys, girls? Especially from Africa, from Eastern Europe, from Asia?

2. The film highlighting human trafficking, the several stories, interwoven? The work of Anthony Carter and his authority?

3. The focus on Anthony Carter, his work, formerly in the vice squad, in charge of human trafficking issues? His collaborators? His home life, his relationship with his daughter, taking her to school? Taking her to visit Rosemary, playing the game, to get information? The reaction of his wife? His dedication to his work?

4. The different stories:

• Rosemary: on the plane, her arrival in London, her age, helpless but knowing? Flushing the passport down the toilet? With the police? The answers she had learnt? Interrogations? Her being taken to the house, April looking after her, the other African girl and her jealousy, giving information to the traffickers who were watching the house? The threats? Carter bringing his daughter? The photo game, his detecting her reaction to different faces? Her attempts to run away, desperate? Carter and his continued help? His quiet persuasiveness? Her finally giving the information? The young woman coming to talk to her, telling her of her own experiences? Rosemary identifying the trafficker in the line-up?

• The Asian boy, bound and gagged in the truck, the Asian traffickers, taking him to his dwelling, the poverty? Taking him to the marijuana plantation? His work? A virtual slave? Discovered, his helplessness?

• The young Eastern European girl, Asian appearance, mistaken for a boy? Her exuberance at being in England? With the girls, the accommodation, poor? The older girls and the prostitution? The girl being taken to the hostel, her encounters with the men, having to do all the manual work, the washing? The man who didn’t want his washing done and their confrontation? The support of the other men? Her work, slavery, having to pay for her accommodation and food?

• The girl with the false passport, being tracked down, her sticking to her study story? The detection of the false passport? The threats? Her agreement in talking to Rosemary, explaining the situation – and her future, being sent back home?

5. The film’s action over a couple of days? The pressures on the authorities and the police? The reality of the men and women sold into slavery? The personalities of the traffickers – and the scene with the main trafficker, doing a bargain with his client to sell Rosemary? The line-up, the arrest?

6. The vastness of the problem in the contemporary world, movement around the world, ease of communication, ease of travel? The challenge for justice and the law?