Synopsis
At 13 years old, Sona was sold from Nepal into sex trafficking in India. She’s not the only one—an estimated 12,000 children are trafficked out of Nepal every year. The Twelve Thousand is a dramatic short film depicting the true story of one trafficked survivor.
Shot on location in Kathmandu, the film follows Sona through the sobering real-life stages of her trafficking experience. We watch in agony as she is lured away from her rural village by the promise of better opportunity in the city, but is ultimately deceived and sold into sex trafficking in an Indian brothel. We want to scream out on her behalf as we witness her gut-wrenching encounter with her first customer. And we are challenged to take action in a chilling ending where Sona confronts her offenders in an alternate reality.
Can there be any hope in a situation so dark? Can one voice make a difference? This brave survivor believes it can. After being trapped in the Indian brothel for three years, Sona was rescued, repatriated back to Nepal and brought to a safe home where she began her healing process. A decade later, she decided it was time to take a stand: “If sharing my story will help other kids find healing like I did, I want to tell it.” In this moving retelling of her story, we are forced to come to terms with the reality of modern day slavery from an insider’s perspecitve and shown a glimpse of the hope that lies on the other side of freedom and healing.
The film features no professional actors—only Nepalese nationals who have been directly affected by trafficking.