Moving People, Moving Images

Human trafficking has always been a popular topic in cinema, with the film The Silent Traffic in Soulspromoting reform as early as 1913. Since then the idea of human trafficking has been revised at various times and within various contexts, as in the past decade, where the rise in migration and the demise of national borders have turned human traffic into one of the dominant narratives of contemporary cinema. This study focuses on the current cycle of films that play upon trafficking anxieties. Like their subject, these essays are transnational in nature, reflecting on films that depict white slavery, drug trafficking, and undocumented labor. The volume considers films by such internationally renowned directors as Amos Gitaï ( Promised Land, 2004), the Dardenne Brothers ( Lorna's Silence, 2008), Nick Broomfield ( Ghosts, 2006), Michael Winterbottom ( In This World, 2002), and Ulrich Seidl ( Import/Export, 2002). A range of documentary and activist films are also examined, as well as examples from popular genres, such as Pierre Morel's Taken(2008) and Brad Anderson's Transsiberian(2008).