Kevin Kline's film on human trafficking in US opens at UN

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Kevin Kline opens film at U.N. on trafficking in U.S. | U.S. | Reuters

Kevin Kline opens film at U.N. on trafficking in U.S.

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Actor Kevin Kline's new film on the epidemic trafficking of human beings, with girls forced into prostitution and children into slave labor, opened on Wednesday at the United Nations.

The film entitled "Trade," inspired by a three-year-old New York Times magazine article, tells the story of a 13-year-old Mexican girl and a young Polish woman kidnapped by traffickers and put up for sale in the United States. Kline plays a Texas policeman who with the girl's brother sets off on a dangerous rescue attempt.

"It tells a story with a human face and tries to make it very real without sensationalizing," Kline told a news conference before the premiere. "The movie is gut-wrenching and alarming and disturbing, as it is meant to be."

"It doesn't have blockbuster written all over it, but one hopes is it will have a ripple effect -- so the awareness level will be raised as much as it can be," he said.

Five percent of the proceeds during the first few months will go to the Vienna-based Office on Drugs and Crime, whose executive director, Antonio Maria Costa, called trafficking "the modern-day version of slavery."

Co-hosting the premiere at the United Nations is Equality Now, a New York-based advocacy group that campaigns for the human rights of women and girls worldwide.

The director is Marco Kreuzpaintner, considered one of Germany's leading young filmmakers.