Back in 2018, when the Guardian was still just about reporting on important matters, it reported on the “Child sex trafficking rife in Colombia’s picturesque Cartagena”.
Now, since its decline is complete, it reviews a film, based on the very same issue, as a QAnon thriller.
The Guardian piece is called “Sound of Freedom: the QAnon-adjacent thriller seducing America” and stars Jim Caviezel.
Caviezel stars as special agent Tim Ballard, a Homeland Security Investigations operative who really did work for the state busting up child-trafficking rings for more a decade.
In Sound of Freedom, he leads a unit to Colombia and eventually goes rogue on his single-minded quest to locate and liberate the still-missing sister of a boy he managed to save from sex slavery.
So the film, based on a true story, takes place in the same country as the 2018 Guardian piece which detailed the horrific abuse that was and probably still is, happening to children.
In much the same way as the paper views the Brexit or Trump victory, it is surprised and disgusted at the result.
However one chooses to slice it, Sound of Freedom has over-delivered on expectations in dollars and cents, a feat of profitability uncommon for a comparatively low-budget production without a major Hollywood-led promotional campaign. Judging by the robust round of applause that concluded the fully-seated screening I attended on Wednesday evening – and this, in the liberal Sodom of Manhattan! – it would seem that the folks at the two-year-old Angel Studios have tapped into a substantial and eagerly marshaled viewership.
I haven’t seen the film yet, nor would it shock me to learn that a lot of it is made up or exaggerated (in fact, I would be glad if it was!). However, what the Guardian doesn’t grasp is that the reason this film is already massively popular, is because we are aware of the horrific crimes that are being committed but they have stopped being reported on. Instead, any mention of sex trafficking leads to ad hominem attacks of being a QAnon cultist.
The fact of the matter is human trafficking “is a business that generates a profit of approximately $32 billion annually. UNICEF estimates that there are around 21 million trafficked people around the world. This figure includes some 5.5 million children…The UN Office on Drugs Crime’s report identifies that the most common form of human trafficking is sexual exploitation. This demand for human trafficking is most common in western and southern Europe (66%), central and south-eastern Europe (65%), followed by East Asia and Pacific (61%) and South America (57%). Conversely, trafficking for forced labour is most common in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (64%) followed by Sub-Saharan Africa”.
So, personally, I would rather a few more over-exaggerated (hopefully) films were produced, highlighting the terrible issues that are happening around the world as we speak, rather than sneering Guardian articles, probably written by somebody who thinks Brexit and Trump supporters are all QAnon supporting, right-wing lunatics. Then maybe things might start to change, instead of pretending these things don’t happen. But then that’s just me.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
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