You'll pay for this.
Adriana is a 13-year-old girl from Mexico City whose kidnapping by sex traffickers sets in motion a desperate mission by her 17-year-old brother, Jorge, to save her. Trapped and terrified by an underground network of international thugs who earn millions exploiting their human cargo, Adriana's only friend and protector throughout her ordeal is Veronica, a young Polish woman tricked into the trade by the same criminal gang. As Jorge dodges immigration officers and incredible obstacles to track the girls' abductors, he meets Ray, a Texas cop whose own family loss to sex trafficking leads him to become an ally in the boy's quest. Fighting with courage and hard-tested faith, the characters of Trade negotiate their way through the unspeakable terrain of the sex trade "tunnels" between Mexico and the United States. From the barrios of Mexico City and the treacherous Rio Grande border, to a secret Internet sex slave auction and the final climactic confrontation at a stash house in suburban New Jersey, Ray and Jorge forge a close bond as they give desperate chase to Adriana's kidnappers before she is sold and disappears forever into this brutal global underworld, a place from which few victims ever return.
Genre(s): Crime, Drama, Thriller
Runtime: 120 minutes
Rating: 7.6/10 (6,576 votes)
Release Date: 23 January 2007
Country: Germany, USA
Languages: English, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Arabic
Company: Roadside Attractions
Sound: DTS, Dolby Digital
MPAA: Rated R for disturbing sexual material involving minors, violence including a rape, language and some drug content.
Director(s): Marco Kreuzpaintner
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Producer(s):
Ashok Amritraj - executive producer
Mariano Carranco - line producer: Mexico
Jakob Claussen - co-producer
Amanda DiGiulio - co-producer
Roland Emmerich - producer
Andreas Grosch - executive producer
Nick Hamson - executive producer
Rosilyn Heller - producer
Peter Landesman - executive producer
Robert Leger - executive producer
Patty Long - line producer: New Mexico
Tom Ortenberg - executive producer
Ulrike Putz - co-producer
Lars Sylvest - executive producer
Oswald von Richthofen - co-producer (as Ossie von Richtofen)
Michael Wimer - executive producer
Thomas Wöbke - co-producer
Andreas Schmid - co-producer (uncredited)
Writer(s):
Jose Rivera - (screenplay)
Peter Landesman - (story) and
Jose Rivera - (story)
Peter Landesman - (article "The Girls Next Door")
Cast:
Kevin Kline - Ray Sheridan
Cesar Ramos - Jorge
Alicja Bachleda - Veronika
Paulina Gaitan - Adriana
Marco Pérez - Manuelo
Linda Emond - Patty Sheridan
Zack Ward - Alex Green
Kate del Castillo - Laura
Tim Reid - Hank Jefferson
Pavel Lychnikoff - Vadim Youchenko (as Pasha D. Lychnikoff)
Music: Leonardo Heiblum, Jacobo Lieberman
Ashok Amritraj - executive producer
Mariano Carranco - line producer: Mexico
Jakob Claussen - co-producer
Amanda DiGiulio - co-producer
Roland Emmerich - producer
Andreas Grosch - executive producer
Nick Hamson - executive producer
Rosilyn Heller - producer
Peter Landesman - executive producer
Robert Leger - executive producer
Patty Long - line producer: New Mexico
Tom Ortenberg - executive producer
Ulrike Putz - co-producer
Lars Sylvest - executive producer
Oswald von Richthofen - co-producer (as Ossie von Richtofen)
Michael Wimer - executive producer
Thomas Wöbke - co-producer
Andreas Schmid - co-producer (uncredited)
Writer(s):
Jose Rivera - (screenplay)
Peter Landesman - (story) and
Jose Rivera - (story)
Peter Landesman - (article "The Girls Next Door")
Cast:
Kevin Kline - Ray Sheridan
Cesar Ramos - Jorge
Alicja Bachleda - Veronika
Paulina Gaitan - Adriana
Marco Pérez - Manuelo
Linda Emond - Patty Sheridan
Zack Ward - Alex Green
Kate del Castillo - Laura
Tim Reid - Hank Jefferson
Pavel Lychnikoff - Vadim Youchenko (as Pasha D. Lychnikoff)
Music: Leonardo Heiblum, Jacobo Lieberman
Posted on: May 18, 2008
March 8th, 2008
Trade is not really the kind of thrilling crime movie that I wasexpecting, it's about something I thought I might have heard aboutquite a lot yet actually never really felt: trafficking children andwomen from the third world to be sold for forced sex. Trade exposes thewhole chain of the business with great genuineness.
For a subject like this it's handy to come up with much more gore andsex to attract some eyeballs, but not with Trade, there is nothinggratuitous here. At several gut-wrenching scenes, at the edge of myseat I longed to see some resistance or retribution, I didn't, but whenI sat back and cleared my thought, I knew that was what would happen inthe real world. Nevertheless although there are many broken hearts,twisted minds and lost souls in the movie, and even the last scene gaveme a groan, I am not left with despair in the end.
Quite a few characters have been developed into some depth, whilesupported by first-class performance(excellent casting!) this doesn'tcause confusion or dilution, but rather delivers me the feeling of thewhole big picture. It does feel a bit dragged at the beginning, I guessit is needed to expose all the details of the business chain, thestoryline flows naturally and keeps me hooked for 2 hours.
Overall this is a well-made untypical crime film with not so much easyentertainment in it, but if you want something genuine that will lingerin your head, go see it and you won't be disappointed.
March 14th, 2008
Trade has some very powerful and wrenching moments but there are toomany contrivances to make it a truly convincing film. Jorge, thebrother, happens to see someone riding his sister's bike and is able totrack down his sister's abductors in a teeming Mexico City hours aftershe is abducted. In the City's chaos ,he loses sight of the trucktransporting his sister, stops for a drink, looks out the window of thestore, and there it is again. Jorge later hops in the trunk of a car,which by chance, is the car of a cop also looking for a missing childso he has a ride and an expert in his chase. A stop for breakfast in arandom diner allows them to happen upon a pervert who happens to havethe web site and passwords for the precise sex auction involving thesister. And then the good guys and the bad guys, in their respectivevehicles, drive from Texas to New Jersey ( like its a few miles away)in record time to all meet up for the finale. Even the sentimentalending has the sister arriving back in Mexico City with her brotherafter being saved,stops at the Church where her mother, at the precisetime of her arrival, is in church praying for her return. The filmobviously exposes the tragedy of sex trafficking in helpless minors andsome scenes, like the one where the sister is rented to a pervert in afield are compelling, but the plot did not have to rely so heavily oncoincidence and contrivance.
April 24th, 2008
There's a possibility that filmmaker made a research for this filmthrough reading various articles in the newspaper. "Trade" isuninspired melodrama that seems too afraid to be what it really meantto be. Sex trade industry is an interesting and controversial subjectto discuss about, but what we've here is only half-baked, incrediblyshallow unfinished project.
Three different stories have interwoven into one film. But the plotbegins in Mexico City. Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) is 13-years-old girlwho lived in the ghetto with her mother and her brother, Jorge (CesarRamos). One day, she was kidnapped while she rode a bicycle. In themeantime, Veronika (Alicja Bachleda-Curus) is a polish girl whosearching for an opportunity in America. But she was tricked by travelagency and landing in Mexico instead of America. Not soon after landed,she's also kidnapped by the same group of people. Adriana and Veronikaare two of a bunch young girls (and boys) who have to across the borderled by Manuelo (Marco Pérez) in order to be sold in America.
After his younger sister is missing, Jorge decided to chase a truckthat seemed to carry them across the border. Once they reach a cityborder, he finds Ray Sheridan (Kevin Kline), a policeman who came toMexico with a personal mission. Jorge decided to hide in Ray's cartrunk. Once Ray found out about it, they're already across the border.Jorge explained his reason to Ray and somehow Ray seemed to believehim. So they head to New Jersey where the bidding of Jorge's sisterwill take place and, by that, they have to do any mean necessary tostop it.
At social commentary point-of-view, "Trade" is right on target. It'sright thing to explore and condemn the world of sex trade industry. Butat the story point-of-view, it's complete failure. There's not a singleone of three stories that will left you stunned. The main story abouttwo young siblings is pretty weak and by-the-number melodrama. Themajor problem is an actor who plays Jorge, his inexperienced actingmethod sometime cause unintentional funny scenes. Ray's story alsorather disappointing, once we've found out the reason he travels allthe way to Mexico, it's not strong enough to make us care for hisissue. And we can see that the filmmaker tried his best to link thesibling's situation to Ray's personal issue. But in the end, theexecution is pretty awkward and feels forced. Even in Veronika's storywhich she did the most horrify thing that happened in the movie, itfelt coming out of nowhere.
The film also falls short in consistency in both visual and character'scharacterization. In the beginning, they decided to use hyper activekind-of style in camera operating. With hand-held and everything, theyseemed to be pretty interesting to look at (especially an opening scenewith a memorable Spanish song). But as the story progressed, theychanged their style to conventional style, with dolly and crane thatwas completely opposite to the first half. And there's irritating badguy who supposed to make us believe that his life lives between grayareas. But somehow, it really didn't matter at all because thefilmmaker decided to ignore his story altogether and, by that, makesour journey with this character seemed unnecessary.
The fate of this film fell upon the first paragraph. "Trade" appears tobe a great article in the newspaper. But as a film, "Trade" isdepressingly joyless drama. It's like every angle of this film suck thelife out of the story a little by a little. And what we have left hereis only series of beautiful and controversial photographs that barelyworth calling themselves as cinema.
April 28th, 2008
The theme is strong and the film's last 30 minutes will provide aninteresting "decent" ending.With great photography and acting the filmhas its moods conveying with the story through image. Good tactics;however, not a great script nor editing.
I assume the position everyone is aware of USA and Mexico wars, such asthe Alamo, and all the land taken in the end by the gringos. Well,Brazil and Paraguai have similar history, and I believe Germany andPoland, and so other countries have this similarity… anyways… therecurrences of this particular theme in north American films are due toa more well established Latino community which is still struggling to"regain" the lands lost in the past (sorta speaking). They immigrated,and slowly became greater in numbers in the land of the free workinghard their way up. We know north Americans call themselves as"americans" and the rest of world is… well… is just the rest of theworld (a way to mask their faults and to keep morale up), but who isthe "rest of the world" indeed if not a CIA that knows everything thatgoes on but does nothing about it. Everything that happens as far assex slavery seems like a fatality. I mean, there's a geek who goes toMexico and finds himself trying to screw young Mexican girls. Rememberthe Alamo? The fact is we are living constant wars within all societiesof any world. Where there's an established "business" comes a customer,and vice-versa. Not to give away the ending of the film; however, thethings we do will keep on being done repeatedly. This theory has beenproved scientifically, historically, philosophically and artistically.
The only mathematical problem (also solved) lies in our own numbers aspopulation in this small constantly "trading" world we inhabit whereeverything we do, comes back to our own selves.
May 24th, 2008
First let me say that some of the reviewers here need to get out more.There ARE some squeamish and disturbing moments here but let's not actlike this is much worse than some of the other "R" rated films that areout there. There is a graphic rape scene… disturbing and disgustingfor sure… If that's the kind of thing that you just can't barewatching then turn away or just avoid the film altogether. I love howmany are talking about the lack of realism…. I didn't know that therewere that many people who had first hand knowledge about the sex tradeunderground… Personally, I thought the film was believable from themoment it started to when the credits rolled. Some criticizing thedialog here…not mentioning the language barriers that play a role inthe story… Some criticizing Kline's acting… not mentioning thedepth and inner pain of his character… I thought the minimized dialogfor his role was an idea that worked quite nicely. The two young actorshere did an unbelievable job….definitely one of the films brightestmoments. A couple of 'instantanious coincidences' and some directingfaults kept this from being fantastic. This is definitely above averageand I would recommend to those who KNOW ahead of time what the subjectmatter is and that there are some graphic scenes… Reading some of thereviews here you'd think that the ratings board really pushed the limiton this one…. not so.. those who feel that way are just terriblyshocked and offended by the rape scene in the first third of the film.I'm modestly handing this one 7 out of 10 or 74/100
June 7th, 2008
In the slums of Mexico City, the small time teenager thief Jorge (CesarRamos) gives a bike to his beloved sister Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) onher thirteenth anniversary under the protest of their mother. Whileriding early in the morning, Adriana is kidnapped by members of aninternational network of sex traffickers. Meanwhile, the gorgeousPolish single mother Veronika (Alicia Bachleda) arrives in Mexico Citywith a friend lured with the promise of a work in USA in a model agencyby the same criminal gang. While transported to New Jersey, the twogirls become friends and Veronika protects Adriana as much as she can.Meanwhile, Jorge desperately seeks his sister in the red light zone ofMexico. He witnesses children and the women being loaded as cargo in atruck and he tracks them trying to save his sister. When he arrives inJuarez, he sees the Texan investigator Ray Sheridan (Kevin Kline), whois chasing a missing daughter, in the house where his sister waslodged. He hides himself in the trunk of Ray's car and once in USA, Rayfinds him and is convinced to help the boy in his quest.
Human trafficking is a sad reality of the contemporary days andtogether with drugs and weapons, they form the three greatest illegalworldwide trades. The societies need to give more attention to thisprofitable slavery of the Twentieth-First Century and consequent use ofthe victims in sexual tourism and other types of sexual exploitation,creating laws, investigating and punishing these sick and meancriminals. The way the children and the girls are treated like cattle,used and abused by perverts and sent from one man to another, isdisgusting. The children and girls are abducted through differentmeans, but in common, they become victims of a powerful internationalnetwork of sex traffickers. "Trade" is the fourth great movie that Ihave watched about this sad reality. "Lilja 4-ever" and "Anjos do Sol"are extremely pessimist and realistic, but focused in the life of onlyone character. "Human Trafficking" gives a big picture how these gangsoperate, following the drama of three lead characters. "Trade" is lesscrude and more Holywoodian, but it is still a very good film. My voteis eight.
Title (Brazil): "Desaparecidos" ("Missing")
June 18th, 2008
Delicate subject matter was fairly well handled and at least it wasn'ttoo Hollywood-fied. There is good acting throughout, especially fromthe new find Cesar Ramos. Paulina Gaitan was convincing as the thirteenyear old kidnap victim and the fantastic looking Alicja Bachleda-Curusalso puts in a worthy performance as the victim of an modeling agencyscam. Reliably, Kevin Kline also puts in a solid effort. Thephotography is beautiful and for the most part the dialogue is wellthought through but falls apart at the end. The first part of the filmis drawn out way too much and is essentially a chase movie. The filmwas obviously trying to show that Jorge would do anything to find hissister but too much time was spent on this. A few clichés slip in suchas when Jorge spots the kidnappers van parked up in a dark street afterlosing site of it hours earlier when his car runs out of fuel. Anotherannoyingly unrealistic scene is the online auction of his sister. Thewhole thing would have been better if it had been more in the style of"City of God". The opening and closing music I liked very much, andoverall well worth a watch.
July 23rd, 2010
good