Kline Promotes Film on Human Trafficking

Lily Hindy - Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS - Academy-award winning actor Kevin Kline came to the United Nations on Wednesday to promote a film on human trafficking which officials hope will raise awareness about the alarming and largely unknown problem.

Kline's new film "Trade," based on a 2004 magazine article, follows the abduction of a young Eastern European woman and a 13-year-old Mexican girl who are roped into an international sex ring with a headquarters in suburban New Jersey.

Kline plays a Texas policeman who teams up with the Mexican girl's brother to track down her abductors. He told reporters Wednesday that the film gives viewers an idea of how trafficking networks operate "not only behind the scenes but ... in plain sight in these residential neighborhoods."

"All around the world it's happening and people see it but they're not aware of it," Kline said. "The movie is gut-wrenching and alarming and disturbing, as it is meant to be."

The U.S. State Department, which releases a report on trafficking each year, estimates 1.1 million people are smuggled across borders each year, the vast majority of them women and children.

Global profits from trafficking victims around the world are as high as $32 billion per year, according to U.N. figures.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said he hoped the film would "create worldwide awareness so that people, governments, business leaders and religious leaders are motivated to join forces in dealing with this crime."

"Obviously there is no better way of building public awareness than using the most popular media around the world," said Costa.

"Trade," the debut American feature from young German director Marco Kreuzpaintner, opens in theaters Sept. 28. Kline and other celebrities including Gloria Steinem, Moby, Sam Waterson and Sigourney Weaver were scheduled to attend the world premiere of the film Wednesday evening at U.N. headquarters.

Equality Now, an international human rights organization that works to protect and promote the rights of women and girls around the world, is co-hosting the premiere.

Copyright 2012 by Associated Press