Journey from hope to hell

Following a successful installation exhibit on the same subject (and with the same name: “The Journey”) which started off in London’s Trafalgar square, flew to New York and is on its way to Spain, Emma Thompson is once more backing an anti human trafficking initiative through the Helen Bamber foundation.

This time the academy award winning British actress best known for roles in Howards End and Sense and Sensibility has lent her talents to star in a short film which she has also co-produced. In this she is the narrator of the 15 minute film which premiered on The Guardian last month.

Directed by Richard Jobson, the story focuses on Svetlana, a Moldavian girl who is trafficked into prostitution. The film is original in that it does not shy away from  showing the horrific reality of the practice which is on the increase across the Western world. Glamourisation and fantasy are left at home.  Despite Thompson’s narration, the story tells itself, leaving the viewer’s gut and emotions to react to the horror.

The male client is also shown to play an active role in the dénouement of the all too well-known story.

His looks are not deceptive either – young, good-looking, white collar, a family man. Indeed according to a study published by the London Metropolitan Museum in 2007 about sex buyers in London, the biggest group of buyers are “white British” and “white ‘other’”, half are either in relationships or married, over a fifth have children and 88.4% of them are in paid employment. Their age group? Far from being the expected sad and elderly loners, they are overwhelmingly men in their 20s and 30s (70 %).

Facts often seem overridden by generally accepted false truths and the idea that things are already being taken care of. Thompson thinks this just may be the problem in the fight for women’s rights altogether:

“I don’t think women are top of anyone’s agenda. I find now is the time for more militancy than ever before. I feel now, in my 50th year, having been very angry and militant as a young woman, that things are not getting better. They’re getting worse; and the sex trafficking industry is an example. I feel that in most places women don’t have jurisdiction over their own bodies. And that if we don’t start seriously addressing the value and the worth of women in the world, this sort of thing is just going to get worse.”

Click on the video link top left to watch the film.