Finding Home: Sophorn's Story

Rapha House, a Missouri non-profit organization founded on Christian principles, produced this documentary about their efforts to provide safe houses for victims of sex trafficking, such as the titular Sophorn, a young woman in Cambodia. Consequently, Derek Hammeke's film sometimes feels like a promotional video. Stephanie Freed, Rapha's co-founder, explains that their clients range in age from six to 18. When she was 14, Sophorn took a job as a waitress to help her mother, a hospital worker, make ends meet, but wound up forced into a brothel that she couldn't leave until she repaid her transportation debt (the brothel was three hours away by taxi). For Buddhists, reneging on a debt can bring bad karma, so traffickers target women like Sophorn, who are less likely to try to escape. After several months, Sophorn's family tracked her down and paid for her freedom. By then, she was pregnant. Rapha helps find a children's home—Mark and Rhonda Benz's Bykota House—to care for Sophorn's daughter, Sarah Rose. For much of Finding Home, Sophorn seems more pessimistic about her prospects than not. Although she eventually comes around, she initially wants nothing to do with her daughter. She also worries that strangers can sense her sexual history just by looking at her. When Sarah Rose turns three, the Benzes offer to adopt her, but Sophorn fears that they will send her away to America (open adoptions are unusual in Cambodia). It's hard to tell whether she'll ever become more optimistic about her future, but these organizations have certainly given her a fighting chance. A strong optional purchase. [Note: Sophorn's Story is also being sold on home video for $10 on DVD, and as part of the full-length feature Finding Home, available for DVD: $15 and Blu-ray: $20 from Finding Home, www.findinghomefilm.com]. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)