2023-08-04
Iain Davis, writing for UK Column, reviews the reactions of the critics to this film, released so far in the US and not yet in the UK.
"The Sound of Freedom" was made pre-Covid (was there such a time?!) in cooperation with Operation Underground Railroad and isn't new - yet it has only recently been released for public viewing. That delay in itself makes for an interesting sub-plot - did nobody want to recoup their investment?
The film isn't about railroads, but about human trafficking - in particular, the trafficking and exploitation of children. So it's about shining some public light on something that the perpetrators would very much rather keep under wraps.
Neither Iain nor I have seen the film, but the reactions of the press may perhaps tell us something.
"As horrific and hard to accept as all these statistics are, we are failing our children if we don't look this evil square in the face"
"In the UK, for example, more than 70,000 children go missing every year. A full 10% of children in state institutions disappear annually"
The scale of this problem is on the face of it horrifying, but we should remember that there are billions of people on our planet. Nevertheless many do suspect that our authorities are less than completely innocent when it comes to such matters, and memories of MPs such a Cyril Smith, BBC entertainers such as Jimmy Savile, and royal friendships with known paedophiles, only add to these suspicions.
But still, the notion that this problem is confined to the UK is absurd - it is global and should be viewed as such - to do otherwise is simply to examine one head of the hydra.
To turn away and ignore it is to condone it.
This is one view of the problem; whether accurate in every detail I cannot say, but perhaps it is in the right ball-park.
Keep calm and carry on.
