Sound of Freedom (2023): 121 mts
Director – Alejandro Monteverde
Cast: Jim Caviezel, Mira Sorvino, Bill Camp, Eduardo Verástegui, Javier Godino, José Zúñiga, Kurt Fuller, Gary Basaraba.
This movie is loosely based on the experiences of Tim Ballard, the founder and CEO of Operation Underground Railroad, an organization combating human trafficking. In 2013, Rocío and Miguel Aguilar, two poor children from Honduras, are kidnapped by Giselle, a beauty queen who deceives their father, Roberto, with false promises of a modeling career. During the first photo shoot, the children are abducted. Tim Ballard, working with Homeland Security Investigations in Calexico, California, is appalled by the increasing child pornography and trafficking cases that cross US borders. Determined to fight, Ballard befriends suspect Ernst Oshinsky by posing as a pedophile. This leads to the arrest of Earl Buchanan and the rescue of Miguel, who gifts Ballard with his sister’s Saint Timothy necklace before reuniting him with his father. Ballard’s search for Rocío takes him to Cartagena, Colombia, where he learns about Giselle’s sex trade connections in Thailand. With the help of a Colombian police officer and a wealthy man named Delgado, Ballard plans a sting operation but is ordered to return home as it cannot be executed in a foreign country. Ballard resigns and continues his search for Rocío. His sympathetic superior secretly supports his mission through the US Embassy in Colombia. Ballard traps Giselle in a sting operation, rescuing 54 children and arresting her. However, Rocío has been sold to FARC, a rebel militia in the Amazon jungle, beyond Colombian government reach. Using fake documents to pose as doctors, Ballard and his companion, Vampiro, infiltrate the rebel camp, but only Ballard is allowed entry. Rocío is held as a sex slave by El Alacrán and is forced to make cocaine. Ballard shoots El Alacrán to rescue Rocío and successfully returns her to her family, giving her the necklace gifted by Miguel. Ballard’s testimony leads to new international laws against sex trafficking. The epilogue starkly reminds viewers that more people are enslaved today than when slavery was legal.
The Chess Players (Shathrunj Ke Khiladi ) 1977: 130 mts
Director: Satyajit Ray.
Cast: Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Amjad Khan, Shabana Azmi, Farida Jalal, Richard Attenborough, Tom Alter, David Abraham, Victor Banerjee, Farooq Shaikh
This classic Hindi movie by the Indian maestro, Satyajit Ray, draws its story from a famous historical fiction by Munshi Premchand that depicts the story of British colonialism in India and shows how the debauchery, escapism and apathy of the ruling monarchs of India paved way for British colonization. The story centers on Wajid Ali Shah, the Nawab of Avadh, a pleasure-seeking patron of the arts, who surrenders his kingdom to the British East India Company in 1856. General James Outram of the Company exploits the Nawab’s failure to honour their agreement to justify the takeover. Parallel to this is the story of two nobles, Mirza Sajjad Ali and Mir Roshan Ali, obsessed with chess and indifferent to the political turmoil. They neglect their duties and their households, escaping to a remote village to continue playing. Their obsession leads to quarrels, even as they witness the British army marching towards their capital without concern. Ultimately, Wajid Ali Shah abdicates without resistance, highlighting the indolence of the nobility. The chess players’ argument culminates in a shooting, but they quickly reconcile and return to their game. Ray’s film poignantly illustrates how indulgence, hedonism, and irresponsibility contribute to the decline of civilizations, with the game’s continuation symbolizing the inevitable loss of power and privilege under foreign rule.
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