The Storm Makers

Filmmaker Guillaume Suon's bleak PBS-aired POV documentary offers a shocking look at human trafficking in Southeast Asia. Cambodian youth, we learn, are easily sold into slavery in Thailand, Malaysia, and Taiwan, beginning with false promises that are made by traffickers to the victims' starving, uneducated families. By focusing on the terrible experiences of dead-eyed teenager and former slave Aya, along with the business practices of two traffickers, the film delivers a fairly complete picture of how this industry works from one end to the other. As is the case with thousands of other kids, Aya was “recruited” by a trafficker who convinced her economically desperate parents that she would get a good-paying job in Thailand. Once Aya turned up at the appointed place and time, however, her passport was confiscated and she was sold to a man in Thailand who regularly beat and raped her, resulting in pregnancy. Rescued by Thai police, Aya was ultimately sent back home along with her unwanted child whom—she confesses late in the film—she often hits in revenge for what the toddler's father did to her. Meanwhile, the two traffickers who agreed to be filmed and interviewed here carry on their criminal activities with impunity. Presenting a startling and terrifying glimpse of the daily realities of the slave trade in at least one corner of the world, this disturbing documentary is recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)