Girl risks everything for freedom. But there’s more to this film than that
By Daniel Nelson
‘ Image by Sold
Sold
The film is so powerful that it rises above the well-worn opening kite-flying sequence and the equally dusted down device of the Western photographer driven by a chance encounter to find and free the girl she glimpses in an upstairs window of a Kolkata street. At least she doesn’t do it single-handedly, but works through an Indian NGO run by brave and committed people.
The film starts quietly and slowly, but rural simplicity and integrity (“All joy in life comes in giving to others”, advises Lakshmi’s mum) are challenged by poverty, and an offer for Lakshmi to work in town proves irresistible (“She will work for a good family. You will see. It is a blessing”, says dad.)
The temptation of filling the family rice-bowl and the nerve-racking but exciting journey to India are deftly handled, and 13-year-old Lakshmi’s introduction and imprisonment in Happiness House is brilliant. From this point on, Sold is an incident-packed, roller-coaster ride. That’s not surprising, given the films that director Jeffrey Brown cites as influencing this one are Shawshank Redemption, Precious, Salaam Bombay, Slumdog Millionaire and Midnight Express.
It’s an emotional thriller – Will Lakshmi escape? If so, how? Who will get hurt, or killed, in the process? – but it’s more thoughtful and complex than your average adventure. For example, the film is not afraid to show that even within the confines of a cruel, violent, depraved sex-slave prison there can be generosity and laughter. Nor is it afraid to reveal that even a woman who finally escapes the debt-bondage that traps them all can face violent rejection when she tries to return home.
Lakshmi’s own spirit is a rejection of that absurd sense of dishonour imposed on so many girls and women who are trapped into prostitution. It is not Lakshmi who is dishonoured by being forced into sex: it is the men and women who abuse her who are dishonourable and who need to be caught, tried and imprisoned.
Deciding to open the festival with a film with a US director is interesting.
Brown says, “I have a strong connection to India because my step-father was Indian and I travelled there when I was ten. I will never forget that experience. I saw a cow eat the food of a starving man, saw the funeral pyres of the dead burning at Varanasi. People either love India or are completely overwhelmed by it. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground. For me, reading SOLD [Patricia McCormick’s best-selling novel] was like reading a song/prayer/poem – I felt called to tell this story on film.”
More pertinently, he notes that “86 per cent of all labour and sex slaves in the world are in three countries: Nepal, India and Pakistan. That means that 18 of the 27 million estimated slaves on the planet are in these three countries.”
Another shocking fact: the average age of trafficked girls around the world is 13, the same as Lakshmi.
To Brown’s credit, he has made an outstanding film, but he also wants it to play a part in tackling the problem he has highlighted so dramatically.
“This is a human rights issue that affects millions of young people,” he says, “and the We-generation using their social networks to mobilize and fund-raise have tools and resources no other generation has ever had to wage change. Once they step into their leadership, they can mobilize things to happen on a massive scale. We hope our film will be a catalyst to mobilise them.”
· Sold opens the London Indian Film festival on 10 July,6pm, at Cineworld Haymarket, and is screened again on 12 July, same time, same venue + Q&A with director Jeffrey Brown and actor Gillian Anderson
+ Also showing at the Festival:
· How to make a saintly modern Indian biopic
· Bravura Bangladesh independence war adventure
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