''Human Trafficking'' is a television miniseries about an American

Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration th ...

agent going undercover to stop an organization from trafficking people, and shows the struggles of three trafficked women. It premiered in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Lifetime Television Lifetime is an American basic cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, a subsidiary of A&E Networks, which is jointly owned by Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company. It features programming that is geared toward ...

on October 24 and 25, 2005 and was broadcast in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

on Citytv on January 2 and 3, 2006. It stars

Mira Sorvino Mira Katherine Sorvino (; born September 28, 1967) is an American actress. She won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Woody Allen's '' Mighty Aphrodite'' (1995). She also starred in the films ...

Donald Sutherland Donald McNichol Sutherland (born 17 July 1935) is a Canadian actor whose film career spans over six decades. He has been nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards, winning two for his performances in the television films '' Citizen X'' (1995) a ...

Rémy Girard Rémy Girard (born August 10, 1950) is a Canadian actor and former television host from Montreal, Quebec. Acting career Girard played the role of Rémy, the main character, who is dying of terminal cancer, in the Canadian film ''The Barbarian In ...

, and

Robert Carlyle Robert Carlyle (born 14 April 1961) is a Scottish actor. His film work includes '' Trainspotting'' (1996), ''The Full Monty'' (1997), ''The World Is Not Enough'' (1999), ''Angela's Ashes'' (1999), '' The Beach'' (2000), ''28 Weeks Later'' (20 ...

Plot

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, single mother Helena (

Isabelle Blais Isabelle Sophie Emilie Blais (born June 21, 1975) is a Canadian film and television actress and singer. History Isabelle Blais was born on June 21, 1975 in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. She is a graduate of the Montreal campus of the Conservatoir ...

) is seduced by a successful, handsome man and travels with him to spend a weekend in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. He then sells her to a human trafficking ring and she is brought to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to work as a sex slave. In

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, sixteen-year-old Nadia (

Laurence Leboeuf Laurence Charlotte Leboeuf (born December 13, 1985) is a Canadian actress. Biography Leboeuf was born on December 13, 1985 in Montreal, Quebec. She went to École Notre-Dame-de-Grâce for elementary and later on, she went to Villa Maria for hig ...

) enters a modelling competition, without her father's knowledge. She is selected by the bogus model agency to travel to New York with the other selected candidates, where she is forced into a life of sexual slavery. Nadia and Helena are placed in the same house in Washington and become friends. In

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, twelve-year-old American tourist Annie Gray ( Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse) is abducted in front of her mother in a busy street by sex traffickers. She is forced into a child brothel which primarily services sex tourists, overseen by an Australian man, Tommy. In common, the girls become victims of a powerful international network of sex traffickers led by the powerful Sergei Karpovich (

). In New York, after the third death of young Eastern European prostitutes, Russian-American NYPD Detective Kate Morozov (

) suspects that these women are being "trafficked" by human trafficking gangs. Kate becomes a Special Agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under her new boss, Bill Meehan (

), the Special Agent-In-Charge of

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...

's New York Field Office. At a party worked by Sergei's girls, Nadia attempts escape but is caught. As punishment, Helena is moved to a location in New York City. Kate busts a salon where girls are being trafficked from the basement. One of the rescued girls is Helena. She tells Kate about her daughter in Prague, who is successfully rescued by Czech police before Karpovich's men can abduct her. Helena also mentions Sergei Karpovich and implores Kate to find Nadia. However, Helena is killed by a sniper bullet shortly after being moved to protective custody. In Manila, Annie's mother remains to search for her daughter while her husband returns to the US. Meanwhile, Annie is held at a child brothel, awaiting transportation to the Middle East. She manages to call her mother and they overhear Tommy talking in the background. They later identify Tommy on the street and the brothel is identified by the police. In Kyiv, Nadia's father Viktor stresses about Nadia's disappearance. He locates details of the modelling agency and infiltrates the organisation by bonding with one of Karpovich's men. He is sent to

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

to help transport another shipment of girls. He is eventually sent to Washington, where he and Nadia are secretly reunited. Using information from Helena, Kate locates the Washington brothel. While Nadia is away, ICE raid the brothel. Kate chases Viktor but when he mentions he is trying to rescue his daughter, she lets him escape. Nadia and Viktor are reunited in New York City. Karpovich gives the name of the Manila brothel to his doctor. ICE raid the brothel and Dr Smith is arrested. However, Tommy is warned by a local police officer on the take and Annie and the other children are smuggled out just in time. The doctor gives the authorities Karpovich's name. Meanwhile, Annie and the other children are locked in a shipping container, awaiting their transportation. Due to missing paperwork and Tommy's execution, the container is abandoned on the docks. Having no luck finding any new leads, Kate poses as a client on Karpovich's dating website and catches the attention of one of Karpovich's men. She pretends to travel from Moscow and is taken to the New York brothel. With Kate inside, ICE raid the building once Karpovich arrives. Karpovich is killed, along with several of his men. Nadia and Viktor are rescued. In Manila, another of Annie's captors has a change of heart upon watching his daughter play. He calls the police and alerts them about the shipping container. Annie is rescued, along with the other children, and reunited with her parents. Karpovich's empire is dismantled, many other girls are rescued and his associates arrested. Human Trafficking closes with images of people walking through crowded city streets, as a closing title caption announces that human trafficking is the third-most profitable criminal business in the world, with as many as 800,000 victims each year.

Cast

– Agent Kate Morozov / Katya Morozova *

– Agent Bill Meehan *

– Sergei Karpovich *

– Viktor Taganov *

– Helena Votrubova *

– Nadya Taganova *

Vlasta Vrána Vlasta Vrána (born 1950), is a Canadian actor of Czech descent. Life and career Vrána, born to Czech parents in Norway, moved to Canada at age four. He made his feature-film debut in Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg's '' Shivers''. Vrána ...

– Tommy * Céline Bonnier – Sophie * Mark Antony Krupa – Andrej *

Lynne Adams Lynne Adams is an American actress and writer. Adams played the role of Leslie Jackson Bauer Norris Bauer from 1966 to 1971 and again from August 1973 to June 1976 on ''The Guiding Light''. She was the second generation in her family to act on ...

– Ellen Baker * David Boutin – Frederick * Emma Campbell – Samantha Gray * Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse – Annie Gray * Michael Sorvino – Misha Morozov * Morgane Slemp - Susan *

Anna Hopkins Anna Hopkins (born February 12, 1987) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her role as Lilith in Freeform's original series ''Shadowhunters'' and documentary filmmaker Monica Stuart in ''The Expanse''. Early life and education Hopkins ...

– Katerina * Dawn Ford – Viktoria Votrubova

Production

The miniseries was produced by

Muse Entertainment Enterprises Muse Entertainment is a Canadian producer of films and television programs founded by Michael Prupas in 1998. The company gained press attention in 2011 for their production of the multi- Emmy winning and nominated miniseries '' The Kennedys'' in a ...

for broadcast on Lifetime Television. In April 2005 Muse announced that principal photography had begun and that a Canadian broadcaster would be announced shortly. The miniseries was filmed in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

, and

and was completed in July 2005.

Reception

''Human Trafficking'' received generally mixed to positive reviews by critics.

Alessandra Stanley Alessandra Stanley (born October 3, 1955 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American journalist. As of 2019, she is the co-founder of a weekly newsletter "for worldly cosmopolitans" called ''Air Mail'', alongside former ''Vanity Fair'' editor-in-ch ...

of the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

noted that ''Human Trafficking'' "avoids the seedy sensationalism that cheapens so many television depictions of the crime" and that it is "a harsh public-service message built into a clever, suspenseful thriller."

Tom Shales Thomas William Shales (born November 3, 1944) is an American writer and retired critic of television programming and operations. He was a television critic for ''The Washington Post'' from 1977 to 2010, for which Shales received the Pulitzer Pr ...

of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' was more negative as he found the miniseries an odd subject for Lifetime to broadcast. He noted that in attempting to, "expose a worldwide scandal" ''Human Trafficking'', "happens to expose vast amounts of flesh in the process -- exploitation about exploitation." John Doyle of ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' was also negative towards the miniseries. He compared it to the "searing, shocking and hard to watch" CBC/

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

miniseries ''

Sex Traffic ''Sex Traffic'' is a two-part British-Canadian television thriller, written by Abi Morgan and directed by David Yates, that first broadcast on Channel 4 on 14 October 2004. The series, produced by Veronica Castillo and Derek Wax, stars John S ...

'' which "suggested a direct connection between the sex trade and

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

officials, and with Western corporations based in Eastern Europe. Doyle concluded that "While ''Human Trafficking'' is an international co-production with an international cast, it feels obstinately constructed to satisfy small-minded American viewers.

DVD

On October 25, 2005, Maple Pictures released a 2 disc

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

set of the mini-series in

, which contained interviews with the director and the five principal cast members on the second disc. Echo Bridge Home Entertainment released the miniseries on a single DVD in the U.S. on May 2, 2006 with deleted scenes not shown during the airing on Lifetime, interactive resources, and scene selections. The Canadian DVD is rated 14A; the U.S. release is labeled Not Rated by the

MPAA The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distribu ...

due to enhanced violence of the deleted scenes.

Awards and nominations

Primetime Emmy Awards

* Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie: Donald Sutherland (nominated) * Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie: Robert Carlyle (nominated) * Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special (Original Dramatic Score): Normand Corbeil (nominated)

Golden Globe Awards

* Best Actress in a Mini-Series or TV Movie: Mira Sorvino (nominated) * Best Actor in a Mini-Series or TV Movie: Donald Sutherland (nominated)

Gemini Awards

* Best Costume Design: Marianne Carter (won) * Best Dramatic Mini-Series: Michael Prupas, Christian Duguay, Irene Litinsky (won) * Best Production Design or Art Direction in a Dramatic Program or Series: Guy Lalande (won) * Best Sound in a Dramatic Program: Michel B. Bordeleau, Natalie Fleurant, Louis Gignac, Hans Peter Strobl (nominated) * Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series: Isabelle Blais (nominated)

References

External links

UN.GIFT
- Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Human Trafficking (Tv Miniseries) Lifetime (TV network) films Canadian drama television films English-language Canadian films 1990s English-language films 2005 television films 2005 films Prostitution in American television Works about human trafficking Works about sex trafficking Television series by Muse Entertainment Human trafficking in the United States Gemini and Canadian Screen Award for Best Television Film or Miniseries winners 2000s Canadian films 1990s Canadian films