Trivia
Though the full credit of French version went to a Paris dubbing studio, most of the French-Canadian actors did made their dubbing in a Montreal studio, then sent to France for final post-synchronization. The majority of English-speaking roles were dubbed by French actors.
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Goofs
When Helena and Kate were speaking on the roof of a high-rise building, you can clearly see a flash of the Canadian flag on a building nearby, even though this film was supposed to be set in New York.
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Quotes
Sergei:
The situation's really very simple. You wanted to come to America, and we got you here. But it all cost money. Your passports, visas, tickets, boarding... it all adds up. By now, each of you has accumulated a debt worth tens of thousands of dollars. Plus interest and other expenses. It means until you finish paying that money back to us, usually in a few years or so, we own you. Please understand. It's not my intention to cause you misery. We are in this together. But, be very certain, that if ...
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Kudos to Mira Sorvino (who has become a crusader on this), Lifetime, and producers for making this important expose of this vicious crime. The 4 hour opus charts a single Russian mobster as he kidnaps, rapes, and transports girls into America and around the world. Of course Mira and Donald Sutherland as ICE agents heroically chase the villains, but in reality very little is done to control these vicious predators- police are usually the problem, since they have no understanding or sympathy for the plight of captive "whores", whom they punish and bully for their supposed crimes.
I was a reporter for over 2 years in Russia, and have seen the monstrosity of these criminals and awesome beauty, sweetness, romanticism, and eroticism of the girls there- who are brought up to defer to and please men. In a place where people would make $20 a month, girls would jump at any Western job, which could give them a real life. Lured by an imaginary secretarial or maid job in Europe, they would have documents taken and quickly be raped and broken into total submission. Huge numbers are sent to Israel, where the government ignores problem. But all over the world, Russian girls are wanted by traffickers and johns for their great beauty, literacy, and skills.
An incredible NPR report explained how young girls are shipped to filthy Mexican nightmare brothels where they have to service 30-50 clients a day, then smuggled into America, where they are handed off to other pimps at Disneyland. By this time they are so terrorized and shattered that they don't even try to get away.
A Russian father improbably joins the traffickers to find and rescue his daughter.
If anything this docudrama soft-peddles the horrors- but TV couldn't take the unvarnished truth. It should be mandatory viewing for every American, especially all law enforcement. This hideous crime should be treated as seriously as genocide, since it is. As Sorvino says in the end, the shelve life of these girls before they are used up, killed, or diseased is 4 years, and some 800,000 are trafficked every year- several Darfurs, Bosnias, Kosovos, Iraqs put together.