TRADED

TRADED is a short ethnographic film about the struggles and profligate battle of four women from a small village, Kadiri, in Andhra Pradesh, India, against human trafficking and how they have overcome it, yearning for a better living in their community.
The film starts with the introduction to the character and showcasing the cultural background. The central characters are the four survivors of human trafficking. After a brief introduction, the film will move onto its next scene, where the three women will talk about their journey of how they are more prone to trafficking. Simultaneously, the film structure develops by all four women talking to each other on-screen and sharing their traumatising experience and overcoming that battle. Due to the lack of visuals concerning their past life, that shall be depicted by illustrations not to make the interviews monotonous.
The film's central conflict is human trafficking and how members of their own family sell them for money, which is resolved by various schemes that the Government of India provides to help them.
In the end, the film illustrates how the life of women has changed and how they are now working hard to educate young girls and aware them so that they never fall for the same trap.
Ultimately, the film wants the audience to understand that human trafficking still exists and feel what these women have been through in life, yet they never gave up. They fought their battle and now living a happy life. The film wants to provide the audience with a sense of relief by showing how these women's lives have changed with the help of the Government of India.

  • Harshit Bawa
    Director
  • Simran Arora
    Director
  • Monika Arora
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Non-Fiction, Ethnography, Documentary, Human Rights
  • Runtime:
    16 minutes 22 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 21, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    1,500 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    Hindi
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - London College of Communication and University of Greenwich
  • NAHEMI National Student Film Award

    United Kingdom
    FACTUAL AWARD
  • STUDENT ACADEMY AWARDS
    LOS ANGELES
    United States
    BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY NOMINEE
  • GRIERSON DOC AWARDS
    London
    United Kingdom
    Best Student Doc Nominee
  • ART FILM AWARDS

    BEST SHORT DOC
  • Performance Short Film Competition
    LONDON
    United Kingdom
    Best Short Doc Nominee
  • LIFFT India Filmotsav & Awards
    PUNE
    India
    Best Short Film
  • Berlin International Art Film Festival
    BERLIN
    Germany
    Best Short Documentary
  • Rome Prisma Independent Film Awards
    Rome
    Italy
    Best Short Documentary Nominee
  • Montreal Independent Film Festival
    Montreal
    Canada
    Best Human Rights Film Semi-Finalist
  • Onyko Film Awards

    Ukraine
    Best Short Documentary Official Selection
Director - Harshit Bawa, Simran Arora
Director Statement

TRADED is a 15-minute ethnographic film about the struggles and profligate battle of a small minority of women in India against human trafficking and how they have overcome it by yearning for a better living in their community. Our role was not only limited to being the director, but we also had the opportunity to work closely with the survivors and bring out their unheard stories to a greater audience. We chose to portray the suffering of the women survivors and several findings that I discovered while the production was taking place, which is an integral part of the film—initiated with the idea of working with the survivors of human trafficking and bringing their stories to a greater audience, the subject topic as susceptible as it involved information that had only been read in case studies for research papers.