Review of The Chosen Ones

We normally go to the movies to escape reality, but film's like these one makes the spectator submerge into a tragic reality that's become more and more frequent in our country; modern slavery against woman and psychological transformation in youth's perception towards other individuals, especially towards women. The film tells the story about a juvenile couple, Sofia (14 years old) and Ulises (about 17 or 18 years old, it's never told his age in the film). Ulises entire family are human traffickers who enslave woman into prostitution. Ulises engages with Sofia to put her in a force prostitution house, but falls deeply in love with her. Unfortunately for them Ulises family finds out and takes Sofia to a brothel where they make the 14-year-old have sex with hundreds of different men all day long. The film then tells the story of the suffering of Sofia and some of the other prostitutes that are there by force, and it also tells the story of Ulises way into the family business of enslaving young woman and, contradictory, trying to safe Sofia from the brothel where she was force to work by Ulises father and brother. It's no secret that in Mexico thousands of woman disappear every year and it's no secret that the high level of misogyny in our country is the main reason why these crimes are still unpunished. The film deals with the perception towards woman not only from a men point of view but an entire family. During the film we can see the emotional transformation that Sofia is put through after being imprison. One can't help feel sorry for Sofia but eventually the feeling of empathy turns into a massive anguish that makes the spectator feel powerless and forces us to rethink our concept of freedom in modern times. And that feeling of anguish is even more evident after the film is over, the conversation and debate held outside the cinema between me and my friends was just as tense as the film. The film, in my eyes, was a successful attempt to bring a profound problematic to the spotlight, done with great story telling form the characters to the clean and pure photography and the direction of David Pablos. It's a cruel story to tell but it's an even more difficult story to watch and to admit that modern slavery exists and that little is done to stop it.