Customer Reviews

Trade

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Based on an article written by Peter Landesman, who also wrote the story and co-wrote the screenplay with Jose Rivera ('The Motorcycle Diaries'), TRADE literally forces us to experience the cruel, vicious international market for sex slaves. It is brutally captured on film by director Marco Kreuzpaintner ('Summer Storm') in a manner that spares nothing to unveil the atrocities created by the many people form all countries who ply this trade. It is a tough film to watch, but it is also an important film to see: the public MUST be made aware of this criminal activity that robs the lives of children and adults around the globe.

The setting is Mexico City and in the poor sector lives a fatherless family supported by the oldest son Jorge (Cesar Ramos) whose 'occupation' is petty crime that allows him to bring in money for his mother and his beloved sister Adriana (Paulina Gaitan). We see the abduction of a beautiful young Polish girl Weronica (Alicja Bachleda-Curus) in the Russian sector of the city. Soon after Adriana, trying out her newest bicycle gift from Jorge, is likewise abducted. The girls (and boys) are kept in filthy apartments awaiting border crossings into the US where they will be shipped to New Jersey for sale after being advertised for auction on the Internet. Jorge discovers the absence of his sister, traces her to the Russian sector where he sees the filth in which the victims are kept, but where he also encounters a Texas policeman Ray Sheridan (Kevin Kline) who is continuing his years long search for his daughter. The two 'meet' and join in the chase for the lost girls. And it is the manner in which Jorge and Ray gradually become friends and the clever way in which they cooperate that forms the rest of the story.

Yes, the film is overlong and borders a bit too closely on soap opera techniques, but the acting is so committed and the story is news so important that any flaw in the film can be forgiven because it opens the door to a crime that is all too unfamiliar to most citizens. It is a true story and therein lies the terror. It should be seen. Grady Harp, January 08

The sexual trafficking of women and children around the world is one of the most deplorable crimes and also one of the least understood and under the radar. Having watched a mini-series called Human Trafficking starring Mira Sorvino and Donald Sutherland, I was eager to check this movie out.

It is a riveting story and well-told. The story centers around the abduction of a Polish tourist, and also a 13 year old girl in mexico City[Paulina Gaitan] and how her 17 year old brother[Jorge Cesar Ramos] goes all out to find her. He is joined in his efforts by a Texas investigator, played by Kevin Kline, who has also been searching for his own missing daughter [for years]. Turns out the kidnapped victims are being transported to New Jersey where they are to be auctioned off online.This is a very disturbing movie and very graphic. The scenes of abuse and rape are unsettling to say the least. But, it is a story that needs to be told, and the public need to be made aware that these atrocities are happening, often under the noses of the authorities and people who seem to turn a blind eye to these monstrous acts.

There are so many commercial movies that the paying public goes to see, and that's fine. Yet, movies like these that have a powerful social message seem to be grossly underrated and underappreciated. "Trade" may not the definitive movie on the subject, yet it is definitely one with a powerful message that hopefully serves to educate the general public about the horrors of sexual trafficking.

This is a film that is hard to watch. If you are human, and you have a heart, this experience will definitely not be pleasant. Do not take this as a bad thing however; after the viewing was over, I felt almost a sense of relief and happiness knowing that many viewers will get their lives changed, because of this important little tale.

I will not provide a synopsis of the film; everyone else has summed that up well. What I would like to comment on is the outstanding performances. Within the first ten minutes I was dropped into this story, and I felt like I was involved. You go on a journey from Mexico to New Jersey, and there is a sense like you are a fly on the wall, and all you want to do is help the victims escape. The performances are strong enough that you will inevitably feel a suspension of disbelief.

This is a story that needed to be told, and in my opinion it was done well. This is not an exploitation piece. It is a film however that shows you all the grim details of this world; it is absolutely necessary to drive home it's point.

I recommend this to any viewer willing to take the pain to gain the important message this film has. You will feel sad; there is however a satisfying conclusion that will help with the sadness. You you are looking for an "escapist" film, do not watch this. It is not mindless entertainment like most movies these days, this actually has a point. I hope you will take my word for it, and just watch. Even though the subject matter is dark, it is important, and in my opinion necessary knowledge that every human being on this planet should have.

I give this movie 4 stars because it got its message across with me. It pissed me off. The subject matter is as others have described, the kidnapping of girls and boys for the sex slave trade. I can't believe these people are able to live within their communities with everybody knowing what they do. I don't want to cross any lines here but I was very pleased with the ending of this movie which provided some justice for the viewers.

The acting was very good. Cesar Ramos did a great job playing the vengeful brother, and Kevin Kline is a master actor. I take my hat off to the cast. The pace was just right and kept my interest.

Like others have said, the subject matter is gruesome and there is a rape scene. Do not take the kids to see this movie.

Having seen 'Trade' and measured it against the likes of Human Trafficking and Taken, Trade sadly falls short of the mark. It's very stark, the story moves along almost too fast in certain parts and painfully slow in others. Don't even get me started on the lone suicide in the movie and the decidedly lack of real closure at the end of it. Good storytelling this movie can't bring you, I'd take Taken any day of the week.

we are told that the contemporary society is evolved and Enlightened, religion is the root of all evil, and secular global state will save us all. Watch this move and see what are the consequences of ideas. Cosmic purposeless accident, be it a table or a human can be sold and bought.
...now we're talking. Socially-constructed values anyone, or would you rather have an objective value?
In other words, compare a worldview where the value of a human life is a subject to change, due to variations in constantly fluctuating socially-constructed ethics of naturalism to the worldview of theism where humans have an objective value. I think naturalism lose. And where are the Hitchens and Dawkins when they are needed to explain how is 'religion poisons everything, and is a 'root of all evil'? Hmmm.

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
~(John Lennon - Imagine)


I don't want to spoil this movie. It exposes reality of human affairs. The reality of something other than covers of magazines (the human trafficking - i.e. modern day sex slavery). It gives viewer a sense what would a person experience if he/she would be abducted. It also gives an insight of how human trafficking ruins lives of family members too [which should be obvious of course].

Trade is a film everyone should see. Unfortunately, the Internet has made it easier for sleazeballs to market young Mexican girls to perverts.There's really not much to say about the acting in this film. Kevin Kline's performance was lean and economical--his role wasn't overwritten, which helped to keep the focus on the film's sad premise.

The film's plot revolves around a young streetsmart Mexican punk and his younger--13 year old--sister. Russian slave-traders abduct the 13 year old girl and process her and others out of Mexico and into the U.S. Meanwhile, the girl's older brother persuades an American tourist--insurance man--to help him find his little sister. It's here that the movie threatens to lose focus by staging political--and cliche--verbal exchanges between Kline and the Mexican punk. Thankfully, though, these exhanges were brief and interrupted by scenes involving the trafficked women and their sadistic keepers. Like livestock, the women are packed and shipped in trucks, held in dungeons, and shepherded across hot acrid terrain. Prospective buyers molest the stolen women who are dazed and numbed by all the drugs their keepers feed them.

As a film, Trade doesn't break any new ground; however, the film's subject is potent enough that there's no need to do anything to distract from its main focus.

Trade places the audience into the sex trafficking of young women. This movie was very well done, the ending is so good and you'll might watch it for a second time. It's a wonderful film that should be watched with open minds and a strong stomach. The bully from "A Christmas story" and his upcoming movie "POSTAL" is in this film. Good film.

This film was not critically praised (27 on Rotten Tomatoes), but despite
a melodramatic second half, the film was informative, disturbing, and
for me, riveting. Like "Pay It Forward", Kevin Kline again stars in a movie with a serious social message. A 13 year old girl is kidnapped by
a ring of sex-traffickers, who sneak her and a few others, out of Mexico
into America and other countries, to be sold to pedophiles, often for
very large sums of money over the internet. Since the movie is meant to
be educational as well as entertaining, some realism is sacrificed. But
it is intense and riveting, and the performances are good. While it was
made by the maker of "The Motorcycle Diaries" which was considered a far
better film, having seen both, I would rather watch this over again
despite its rather obvious flaws.

"Trade" provides a good introduction to the sort of horrendous underground economies that have boomed with the expansion of neoliberal economics. One thing that is missing from accounts of the sex trade is an analysis of its root causes. There has always been prostitution and sexual exploitation, but never on the scale that it is on today. For that sort of deeper understanding, I'd suggest Rogue Economics: Capitalism's New Reality.
Ideologues often celebrate so-called "free trade" and events like the fall of the Berlin wall, but we rarely take a look at what these developments have meant. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, life expectancy in Russia has dropped by ten years, and prostitution and smuggling have flourished in what has become a mafia state. Journalists who criticize the crony capitalism and its failures often end up dead. Similar economic catastrophes have unfolded in Latin America and throughout the Global South, where wealthy men travel to rent the bodies of poor people. There are even books such as The Hedonist: World Sex Guide - Single Male Erotic Vacations in Rio, Costa Rica, Thailand, Carribean and much more that advise men on where to go to purchase women.
It's all quite depressing.

One problem I had with this film is how it ends with police swooping in to save the day, like the calvary. No doubt, police can have an important role to play in bringing people to justice. Yet, police and other agents of the growing global police state are often very much involved in sexual exploitation themselves. Guards at prisons, members of our military, DEA/DHS/ICE personnel, and border guards often demand sex from people who are detained or whose countries we've invaded. Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape
U.S. generated media is also among some of the most sexist material ever created, adding to the devaluation of women as simply sex objects.
Rape on Prime Time: Television, Masculinity, and Sexual Violence (Feminist Cultural Studies, the Media, and Political Culture)

Maybe future films on the sex trade will cover economic roots of this injustice, as well as portray women's groups and social justice groups that are working on these issues. It won't be state security forces that save the day, but rather a larger movement for social justice.
Worlds of Women: The Making of an International Women's Movement
The Fourth World War

Some resources to learn about women's issues and how we can contribute to making the world a better place to be female:
Ms
Teen Voices
New Moon: the Magazine for Girls & Their Dreams
Womankind: Faces of Change Around the World