Oluwanilo AwolotoIn the 2021 movie ‘7 Prisoners’ directed by Alexandre Moratto, four young men from Brazil are deceived with the promise of a better life for themselves and their families. The film opens with 18-year-old Mateus (the protagonist) and his family, working on a farm. The final family meal together before Mateus leaves in search of opportunity gives us insight into the precarious family finances and thus their vulnerability to exploitation. The food dished up is not enough to go around for everyone to be satisfied and when money is spent on a parting gift for Mateus, he equates his new shirt to a months’ worth of grocery shopping. Other vulnerabilities to exploitation are portrayed in the film too; poverty when Ezequiel (another young man in search of hope) states “I’ve never slept in a bed before” and lack of education when he states that it “must be nice being able to read”.
Poverty, lack of education, unstable social and political conditions, corruption, economic imbalances and war are key issues that contribute to the character’s vulnerability to modern slavery within this movie.
On Mateus’ and his friends’ journey into the big city, and as they spend their first night there, we are given a glimpse into their naivete, innocence and dreams to make a better life for themselves and their families.
“I won’t be gone for long…I’m gonna make enough cash to build [my family] a nice place”
“Did you see enrolment for night school started?”
These are hopes and dreams that are ultimately exploited. False promises are given to the young men about how much better their lives will be, having taken up this amazing opportunity to work in the city.
“You’ll see how things can change. Thank the Lord my mother’s never had to work in a field again!”
“What you can’t do is miss the opportunity to get out of [the countryside] to get rich and prosper!”.
Mateus and his friends are taken to work in a city scrapyard. He appears to be aware of slavery and tries to avoid the reality facing him and the others by requesting the work contracts they were promised immediately upon arrival. The work in the scrapyard includes stripping and recycling metal for reuse. We see later in the film that the copper they were stripping was being reused as wiring throughout the city. “Your work powers the whole city” they are told.
The first 20 mins of the film put the audience on high alert for modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT) through the red flags that appear. Passports and paperwork are taken away from the young men, they are not being paid, are not given contracts of employment and a debt-bondage relationship quickly appears between them and their boss Mr Luca.
“I need your documents…for the paperwork” states Mr Luca. The young men complain that
“It’s been over a week without pay, if he gets paid – we should too”
“We’ve made 30 deliveries without pay, when we agreed to come Gilson said we’d be paid per delivery”.
The young men are told they owe money for the privilege of being brought to work in the city and the debt quickly escalates:
“1000 in advance to families, 5,000 for recruiters’ fees, 3,000 a month for lodging, 2,000 for transportation to the city, 700 a month for food, 200 for equipment and tools needed to work”.
This is the list thrown at Mateus when he complains of not being paid. Mr Luca, now evidently a perpetrator of human trafficking tells them “you will be paid, once you work off what is owed, I’m taking it from your pay until then”, “you got a free ride here, I did you all a favour and now you owe me”.
Upon realising they are being exploited, the young men try to escape but are caught. They are beaten and their phones are taken from them, further silencing them into forced, fearful obedience.
7 Prisoners also reflects the reality of government and the police being involved in trafficking, not only by turning a blind eye but also by enabling and protecting the traffickers perpetuating this global problem. When hot-headed young man Isaque escapes the scrapyard after the group’s creative ‘rabies disease’ rouse to distract and harm perpetrator Mr Luca, he is brought back and punished by the police who know details of all their families and threaten to harm them if they try to harm Mr Luca again. The involvement of the government is further evidenced later in the film when Mr Luca and Mateus are guests at a presidential candidates’ house.
The Public Labour Prosecution office come to inspect the working conditions in the scrapyard– such inspections are in place to decrease the likelihood, intervene into and prevent MSHT from happening. However, we see that the trafficker is made aware of the inspection just before the inspectors arrive, the boys are hidden away except for Mateus who is told with a slap “Look, [inspectors] are coming, you tell them that we run things by the book here”. Although he is asked questions, Mateus is too scared of the repercussions not only to himself but to his family. Clearly, however well-meaning these processes are, they are not robust enough to protect the very people they set out to.
This film blurs the lines between the trafficker and the trafficked which is a hard reality, and we see clearly the moral dilemma Mateus faces. A grooming process takes place between him and Mr Luca. Mateus is forced to choose three new recruits for the scrapyard and coerced into selling other trafficked victims, of which he earns a cut. Mateus is also given cigarettes, new clothes, alcohol, taken to a party and given some authority over the other boys to the extent that he gives the order to punish his friend Samuel as he tries to make an escape. His punishment was his mother being beaten up back home and a picture shown to him for proof. Both visible and invisible chains hold these men captive, they are locked in their dorms and the threat to their families too keeps them from escaping.
I hoped that Mateus was just biding his time and strategically planning when and how he would help all the others escape but there is no happy ending here. Mr Luca is rising in the trafficking ranks and Mateus leaves the scrapyard with him, putting the protection and financial support of his own family ahead of the others. The ending reflects the moral complexities of MSHT and the precarious future many victims face.
Whilst the movie ends, the story of MSHT in real life does not – and there is hope although there is much still to do! In the UK, modern slavery reported crimes are on the increase, the number of cases referred to the Crown prosecution service and the number of prosecutions ending in conviction is also on the rise. Awareness and education are key, we can all play a role in ending MSHT. The more people who can recognise and report modern slavery, the more effectively we can safeguard victims and bring the traffickers to justice(1).
VITA Training aims to advance the health response to modern slavery, ensuring victims and survivors receive the person-centred, trauma-informed care they deserve. Effective and practical training that equips front line healthcare professionals with transferable consultation skills to identify, support and safeguard victims and survivors, including those in forced labour situations such as the young men in this film, and the scrapyard injuries and health consequences of stress, violence and poor living conditions they may present with.
Book your VITA course here! : https://www.vita-training.com/
You can watch 7 Prisoners yourself on Netflix.
Reference:
- https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/modern-slavery-and-human-trafficking