The movie tells the real-life story of Tim Ballard, who worked in the US Department of Homeland Security, investigating child pornography.
When his colleague Chris comments that even though they have arrested many paedophiles, they have not saved any victims, Ballard, played by Jim Caviezel, decides to act.
He befriends a paedophile in order to find children that are being trafficked.
Once he has saved one child, he is on a mission to rescue more, and resigns his job to look for others.
The search takes him to Columbia where he forms a team to save children.
While the situation portrayed in the movie is fictional, Ballard founded the organisation Operation Underground Railroad to work with police in many countries to catch child sex traffickers.
As the credits start to roll at the end of the film, a notice on the screen advises a special message will play in three minutes. (Interestingly most people in the theatre did not stay for it.)
In it, Caviezel makes a plea for people to talk about the film to publicise the prevalence of sex trafficking in our world today.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates 1.35 million people are forced into the sex trade every year — 98% are female, and 40-50% are children under 18.
It is now the world's third largest industry, after illegal weapon and drug dealing, and as many as 27 million people are in slavery — this is more than at any other time in history, including when slavery was legal.
I recommend this movie but it is not for the faint-hearted.
It is rather long and at times slow-moving, but it is one of those annoying confrontational kind of movies that makes me wonder what part do I have to play in ridding the world of this inhumane and evil practice.
However, it does give an insight into something that, thankfully, is not on a scale in this country as in other parts of the world. It is also a wake-up call to make sure that never happens.
