Original subtitles

My first morning in Bangladesh.

After two days of traveling and a sleepless night,

I am lying on my hotel bed feeling dead tired.

The fan gives me at least some relief.

Lights and shadows fall through a small gap in the shutter,

displaying the signs of life of this

foreign world on the hotel room's ceiling.

While I'm watching the "movie" on that ceiling,

I remember the movie that was the trigger for my journey.

That night, the lights and shadows of this

world were projected on a screen in Munich:

They were showing a girl in a documentary,

who paused in the middle of an

interview and asked her own questions.

Questions that wouldn't let go of me.

Questions I didn't know the answers to.

Answers that I myself would like to know.

I would like to say something.

We women are actually very unhappy creatures.

To survive as a woman...

is actually really hard.

Why...

do we have to live with so much suffering?

Isn't there any other way for us women?

Is there a way at all?

Who can answer this question for me?

I can't get the girl and her questions out of my mind.

Although our lives couldn't be more different.

She, a 15-year-old girl in Bangladesh,

who had been abducted to a brothel

and was asking for a way of life,

that was different from being raped several times a day.

Me...

a documentary film student from Munich in his early 30s.

Sleepless again from pondering

which one of all the possible ways of life really made sense.

Now I feel somehow caught.

Why do I watch pain and get myself involved,

when I know I can't do anything about it?

But what am I supposed to do?

Tune it out?

Be indifferent to it?

Should I look for the girl in

Bangladesh and find out if I can help?

Of course not.

And while I reflect about this the

next morning, the doorbell rings.

This is something we have as well,

questions about life.

Would it be silly, if one is aware of being

touched and stuff,

to go there and help?

You can't help.

The only help that will reach us at the end,

will come through the kingdom of God.

All conditions on earth will eventually be changed,

as right now it's not God who is the ruler.

The Bible says that Satan is the ruler of this system of things.

Someone we humans can't overcome.

But the future will bring change, Jehovah will intervene.

Through us or by himself?

He himself will intervene

and he will sort out those who are causing trouble

on this planet.

I'm drinking tomato juice.

I look out the window.

Cities at night remind me of grazed knees.

Two years have passed since I saw the interview with the

girl and made that unexpected acquaintance at my door.

In those two years I had many

conversations about that girl in the movie.

I interviewed people on the streets,

and friends who had been involved

in humanitarian projects.

I talked to male and female experts,

like filmmaker Michael Haneke,

to Michaela Rehm, a professor of ethics,

and to psychoanalyst Wolfgang Schmidbauer.

How do they all deal with the

images and stories that reach us?

Do we have a global responsibility?

Do I have helper syndrome?

My professor asked me,

if I intended to ride as a white man

on a high horse into the brothel,

to heroically share my coat.

I learned a lot during these conversations,

but nevertheless my inner urge to follow my first impulse,

to find out what would actually happen

if I tried to do something, grew.

Doing nothing for good reason...

I've done that often enough.

Is it possible to find that girl?

At least I want to try.

The destination of my journey: Faridpur.

This is where almost seven years ago filmmaker

Michael Glawogger made the interview.

I have this feeling you get when you jump off a diving board

and there is no going back.

I think about the girl's questions.

Is there a way?

My way back would take much longer now than to go ahead.

And despite all doubts and uncertainties,

that feels right

QUESTIONS

Fantastic.

Very nice. - But where is she?

She says that you men are good customers.

Oh, we are good customers?

With your life you are good customers.

But...

She says, she is very poor.

Poor woman, very poor woman.

I'm not getting any clue.

I'm not completely sure what she is saying...

She's not talking very clearly.

But where could I find her?

- It is very tough. - It's very tough?

It is very tough to find out.

Do you know anything about the situation there?

No, actually, no.

I never go there.

But you can check, the brothel is there.

On the bank of this river. - The city river?

The roof of the building.

This? - Yes, the white one.

Can you lead us there?

No?

Thank you very much.

With some hesitation I follow his directions

and wonder whether I should rather

postpone my first visit to the brothel,

when suddenly a boy steps up to me, who

had been following me for some time.

"Brothel?" he asks shyly.

But less than one minute later he takes

my hand and guides me through the city,

as if we had known each other forever.

His name is Redoy.

Which translated to English means "heart."

After a discussion about if and whom

I'm allowed to film, I dare to take the next step.

Do you know her?

No?

I'm not allowed to film underage girls.

Some of them have mask-like white

makeup, and glassy eyes and empty looks,

as if they are on drugs.

And I notice the many children who are bustling about,

and who have made this environment

their home as naturally

as kids do with it with every environment all over the world.

Do you know where she lives?

Where we can find her?

I know where it is.

So you know her?

She used to live there, I don't know about now.

The camera seems to give the people

the feeling that I know what I'm doing

and it protects me from being perceived as a client.

I immerse myself in this alien world, that I feel deeply about.

But does it concern me at all?

A group of girls approaches me.

Their Madam, that's to say their procurer, their owner,

had once told them about a film shooting.

And indeed: I recognise the woman

from Michael Glawogger's movie.

When I was the spokeswoman here,

someone introduced me to Michael

and he accompanied me everywhere.

He also took a picture of me.

So, does she know this girl?

Why do we have to live with so much suffering?

Isn't there any other way for us women?

No, I don't know her.

She looks a bit like Shumi.

She doesn't know her? - No.

She was not her Madam? - No.

At the end of the interview the girl asks some questions.

Do you have answers to these questions?

We don't have a real chance.

And there is no chance to find another job either.

But each one of us

would love to get out of here and see the world.

The journey to the other side of

the screen was so unexpectedly fast.

I'm surprised by the hospitality

and the honesty of the people here.

They invite me for tea everywhere and the

women tell me frankly why they are here.

Many of them because they are forced to work for a Madam.

Others used to be forced, but then they

couldn't find a way back into society

as they were considered dishonored.

When they get too old to earn money, they buy

young girls in return and force them to work for them.

A vicious circle... since colonial times.

Nobody that I talked to knew anything about the girl.

On my way back to the hotel I run into my first acquaintance.

Redoy, the boy who had guided me to the brothel.

He tells me that he lives in the brothel with his sister.

At night he prefers roaming the streets.

His sleeping place is under the bed

where his sister serves her clients.

My stepmother, she often used to beat me up.

One morning at three o'clock,

my sister and I ran off.

We slept in Dhaka station...

Please, slow down.

How long did you stay there?

We stayed there ten days without food.

I prayed to Allah.

"Oh, Allah, please send someone who can change my life."

And a woman came and took us to Faridpur.

But she sold us for 1300 Euros.

Then my sister got sold again.

It's so bad here that we are wondering about how to escape.

I've never been without my sister

and I couldn't live without her.

I got no indication where to find the girl,

but two names were mentioned to me in the

brothel again and again: Chanchala and Shyamal.

I made some research and found out

that they were among the first ones to speak

up for the rights of sex workers in Bangladesh

and that they fight against forced prostitution.

Meanwhile they also run a home

for little girls from the brothel.

Shyamal speaks English.

During our phone call he invites me

straight away to come to his home.

So yesterday, when I was in the brothel,

I got to know so many people

and heard about their abuse and suffering.

And I asked myself, "What can one do?"

You know, you cannot help the whole world.

What do you think?

Yeah, it's true.

But somebody has to start.

I'm optimistic, always optimistic.

Because when I started this organization,

we had a broken chair and a broken table.

And now it is big enough.

In my sense it is big enough.

We had a small start.

We see that the start is small, we like to be small,

but we want to make it beautiful.

Through his studies in Japan

Shyamal got in contact with aid agencies for

women who had become victims of sexual violence.

That made him perceive things in his

home country with different eyes.

With his wife Chanchala he founded a non-profit

organization that they called Shapla Mohila, "Lily-woman."

Shyamal invites me to the office to meet Chanchala.

Our social situation is like this:

Since our country is a Muslim country,

it's already a sin

to pronounce the words "sex worker."

It's also a sin to get closer than twelve meters

to a sex worker.

All this is a sin.

"Keep as much distance as possible from them,"

that's what I thought back then.

When I started this work,

I knew many rumors from the brothel,

as I grew up close to it.

To see it with my own eyes made me so sad

that I wanted to rescue these girls.

So they told you to lie, didn't they?

They said they would tell me

what I should say regarding my age.

I told them that I was 15.

But they said that I had to tell people I was 20.

I stayed calm and thought about

how I could run away.

Yesterday I tried, but I didn't make it.

Chanchala and Shyamal probably know hundreds

of cases like the girl from the documentary.

I feel almost embarrassed to tell them that I came

all the way because of the questions of one girl.

Do you think it's somehow unjust

to help one girl because she had the luck

to be in that movie?

Yes, it's not unjust, I'd say...

but a single person you can help,

but it is better to change the system.

Because it is a continuous process,

one girl will come, another girl will come,

then another will escape...

It's not going to stop.

So we need to think about the system,

we need to change the system.

Of course Shyamal is right.

But that I should be able to change the

system seems a bit unrealistic to me.

Maybe I should just stick to my search for now.

Do you think it's possible to find that girl?

It's a time thing.

So in the short time

it's not possible to find her.

Maybe it will take one or two or even three, five years.

Shyamal tells me that he and his wife often

run into opposition, because they support dishonored women.

And that he is pleased to meet someone

who isn't indifferent to these fates.

He wants to help me in my search

and accompanies me to the brothel.

Can we find her here?

What does she think? Is there a way out?

He wants to know

if there is a way to get out of this place?

Every time I have a client,

I need to wake up my son and send him out.

That hurts me.

We all have the same problem, all the time.

Having to shake the kids out of sleep and then have sex.

I want to go to school. - He wants to go to school.

Our life is almost over.

But we want a different life for our kids.

We need a home for the boys,

like there is one for the little girls.

You know, I can't build a children's home, you know.

Yes.

This mother is not the only one who asks me to do that.

My pale skin seems to promise unlimited resources.

And of course it would make sense to build a home.

Kids who live in a brothel usually

don't get accepted by the schools,

as other parents would take their kids out of the classes.

And without education, they will very

likely spend their whole lives in a brothel.

I ask Shyamal how the girls get into forced prostitution.

And he offers to introduce me to someone

who worked as a human trafficker.

Shyamal says that they don't need to hide

themselves too much, as the police often cash in as well.

And in fact, less than one hour later,

I find myself sitting in front of him.

My job is to stroll around the city square.

Sometimes I find poor and lost girls there.

They are very hungry.

First I give them hope.

I say, "Come with me, you can work as a housemaid."

Then they accept.

But I have a different plan.

I'm going to sell them.

They say, "I don't do this kind of job."

Then I use torture.

After torturing a girl, I bring her to a house where

I continue the torture.

If I threaten to continue, they accept.

First I give her sleeping pills and when she is asleep,

I wake her up in the middle of the night.

Together with three or four friends we

completely undress her.

We tell her, "If you don't do it, we kill you."

Do you also sexually abuse the girls?

Yes, and we take pictures and threaten to show them

to their families

if they don't cooperate.

I need the money.

These girls are not my family,

I don't care if they're suffering, I picked them

up from the streets.

If somebody did this to your daughter,

what would you do?

I would kill him.

I would shoot him dead.

- He would have killed that... - Really?

Really?

Yes.

Shyamal gets a phone call and we drive straight to the brothel.

A young woman called Hafeza sought refuge

with someone of his aid organization.

Sonya rescued her, I wasn't there.

Now tell us, we are here.

There was blood everywhere in her room.

Here, she hit her with this one.

She could have died.

Oh my God.

How do you know that she was beaten?

Look at her face.

She hit her terribly.

Where are you from? Dinajpur?

And how did you get here?

OK, you don't need to talk.

Hafeza has been in the brothel for only ten days.

Ever since her Madam had tried to break

her resistance without any success.

Hafeza let every client feel

that she wasn't there voluntarily.

But she can't stay in the brothel.

So maybe we can rent a hotel room,

so she can get some rest until we know what we can do?

A hotel is not safe for her.

You mean it's not safe, someone could try to harm her?

Maybe it's a problem, yes. - Someone will come?

Don't tell me she is underage.

If she gets out...

we'll get in trouble with the police.

In the middle of this chaos,

Redoy, who wants to play cricket.

Nobody wants to call the police.

They would probably only take what money they could.

Shyamal takes a big risk by liberating

Hafeza from the brothel all by himself.

It's difficult enough with underage girls and

almost impossible when a woman is over 18.

Her fingers are swollen from the beats.

Hafeza's Madam had been cautious

to leave as few marks as possible,

by hitting her mainly on the joints and in the stomach.

Visibly mistreated girls get fewer clients.

When I say goodbye to Hafeza,

she takes my hand,

and suddenly a cold shiver runs through me.

I realize that in a way the

camera is also a protection for me

behind which I've been hiding to some extent.

THIS POST IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ME

PLEASE READ IT

IT'S A PERSONAL REQUEST FOR A DONATION

I would like to somehow help Hafeza.

And also the kids in the brothel.

The only thing I can come up with

is to make a post on Facebook

where I ask friends for donations.

Redoy is waiting for me in front of the hotel.

He realizes that I'm a bit sad

and to my surprise he proposes a solution.

Michael is very sad.

I can see that he's very sad.

I will help him to get married.

Is it possible to live and not be married?

You are married, aren't you? You should get married too.

I'll get you married.

He said that he wants to give you a girl.

You have a girl in your mind already?

She's beautiful and as white as Michael.

She lives with us and her name is Tasli.

Why did you choose Tasli?

She is so pretty.

Pretty. Nothing else?

Her skin is as fair as Michael's.

And her hair is beautiful and blonde

like Michael's hair.

Her hair is pretty and white, but what about her heart?

Yes.

And if you slap her twice, she'll agree to marry him.

Slap her? - Yes, but only twice.

We need to go to the hospital. Shyamal is

afraid that Hafeza might have internal bleeding.

Chanchala has the idea

that I, the white man with the camera,

could interview the residence doctor.

Maybe he would feel flattered and

find a way to treat Hafeza for free.

I'm a member of this hospital

and pediatrician of this hospital.

And coordinator of One Stop Crisis Center,

a project from the government to help these victims.

The strategy, that doesn't really make me feel comfortable,

works out and it repeatedly opens doors for us from now on.

The residence doctor personally takes

care of Hafeza's hospital admission.

Somebody hit you.

What happened exactly?

What was the reason?

Nothing special.

That's how it is, she hits me.

But tell me, why?

What she demands,

what she asks me to do for her.

I don't have a clue what it is all about.

So that's why she hits me.

We should do something.

Sir, we should do something.

Where did she hit you? - All over the body.

What do you think?

Do you want to report your Madam to the police?

She should be suffering as much

as she made me suffer.

Then we have to report her.

You can do it, or your parents can do it.

Hafeza will stay at the hospital for observation.

Shyamal has to leave.

He needs to drive the girl that sat in his

office, when I met him and Chanchala yesterday,

to the government home.

The 15-year-old Padma had been in the brothel

for just two days, before she was freed.

She was very lucky.

But the government home was not how I expected it to be.

The liberated girls just get locked away,

although they are the victims.

The authorities just don't know where to put them.

Their families often refuse to take them back.

And a young woman who is not connected to a

family has almost no chance in this society.

I ask Shyamal if it was a good idea to take Padma here.

His answer: It might not be an ideal place,

but in the brothel they are also locked in.

At least here they don't get violated.

The girls are so locked away.

Why is that? Would they run away if they had the chance to?

Yes. - They would run away?

You are right.

We don't like to define it as a…

Victim support center?

Prison? - Yes.

We don't want to speak that this a prison cell.

So we call it in a different name, "safe home."

She tell me the story how she came here?

How did you end up as a prostitute?

Why I left home?

Back then I had a fight at home with my husband.

Then I left home and went to Bhoirab.

I met a woman there,

she promised me a good job.

But then she brought me to a brothel and sold me.

I tried to run away,

but I did not make it.

They caught me again.

I was there for one year,

then I was rescued

and they brought me to this place.

When I came to this home, I was pregnant.

They brought me to the hospital and there I had my baby.

Since then we have lived here.

I want to leave as soon as I have learned something.

I'd like to be able to learn a job,

to learn a profession.

Until then, I can't go back.

Back then I was very young.

My aunt lived in Dhaka

and I wasn't grown up yet.

When my aunt was at work,

I went outside to look for her.

A woman approached me, saying,

"Your aunt is at my place."

I asked her

if it was true what she was saying or a lie?

I followed her

and saw that my aunt wasn't there.

Somebody put a white tissue over my face.

After that I don't recall anything.

Monica can only leave the government

home With her parents' agreement.

But the home management can't get hold of them yet.

They seem to have left their hometown.

Now Monica is locked in here -

for an indefinite time -

together with 30 other girls and young women.

Upon our departure, Monica asks us to look for

her family and we promise her that we'll try.

So they're not in their hometown?

What do we do now?

I'm looking through the districts

and then from sub-districts...

Shyamal spends the afternoon calling

post offices and village administrations,

until we suddenly get an unexpected

and very colorful visit.

The kids urge me to come outside with

them to smear each other with color.

After visiting the government home,

I'm not in the mood at all.

But the kids tell me that it's part of the

Holi festival and if I refused to come,

I would offend the gods.

I know that most of the kids are not even Hindus,

but I realize that they won't take no for an answer.

And maybe some color will do me good.

Police.

Normally I'm afraid of the police.

Can you ask Redoy if police are good people?

Are the police nice?

No. The police are bad here.

Why not?

Police agents who don't like the drug dealers are good.

Those who support drug dealers are not good.

If somebody arrested the police, I would be very happy.

I would thank Michael if he arrested the police.

I'm so happy that the kids

convinced me not to offend the gods.

The color did me good.

How could all this happen in just one day?

The kids and bathing in the river,

Bringing Padma to the so-called "safe home."

Hafeza being in hospital.

I haven't given up on finding the girl from the movie,

but right now I have no clue how to continue my search.

I really need to get some sleep,

but I can't sleep.

I'm so excited because of my call for donations on Facebook.

Wait, I'll make it less blurry.

Overnight, from my friends, we have now 68,000 taka.

Excellent. This is excellent.

I mean it's not much, but it's a good start.

It's more than I thought. - Yeah, it's a good start.

Shyamal is euphoric because of the 700 Euros

and he believes it's enough to start planning a boys' home.

He and Chanchala also have good news.

They found Monica's family.

I'm calling from Faridpur.

What? - I'm calling from Faridpur.

We picked up your sister at a bus station.

When we find underage girls,

we must deliver them to the police.

We delivered her to the government home.

You don't understand.

They won't hand her over to us.

She can only be consigned to a relative.

If you don't come, she will rot away.

Is that what you want?

He's saying, "Is it possible to talk with my sister?"

Ah, yeah.

I said, "Yes, it's possible. We'll call you."

It will be very tough for my family to hear all this.

We won't tell them, and you shouldn't either.

If they heard what I had to do,

they would hang themselves.

We need to tell the same story.

You have been married.

And we picked you up,

when you were hanging around

at the bus station.

You thought that I was dead?

No, I'm in the government home.

You need to come and pick me up.

Can you bring Kamrul?

No, first you need to go to Dhaka,

then you take the bus to Faridpur.

Once you are in Faridpur, you call this number.

Then somebody will come and pick you up.

No, there won't be any problems.

First you come here and then I will take care of Dad.

Did your brother believe you?

My brother loves me so much,

he would believe anything.

Why are the girls so locked away

and the boys so free?

Right, right. They're bounded, but, uh, girls are bounded,

but boys are free.

Yes, why?

It's, uh, gender violence.

Gender violence?

It's suited for our environment.

But is it not possible to change, you know,

to make it more nice?

We should take a project

for the whole country.

Or for the whole world.

Crying echoes through the corridors.

The home manager had told Padma, the girl that

we brought to the government home yesterday,

that for now, her parents didn't want to see her.

She will have to stay in the

government home for an indefinite time.

But I can't be without you, Mama.

Oh, Allah...

Mama.

How can you be without me?

All the girls had stood around Padma, looking at her.

But none of them had tried to console her.

Maybe their own suffering is too severe.

The next morning I feel like staying in bed.

When I miss our common breakfast, Redoy

and Shyamal decide pay me a visit.

Michael, it's me.

Open up.

Are you sick?

Fever?

Are you OK?

Yes, are you OK?

We made a short cost analysis

the budget analysis, that we were

planning from the beginning.

Maybe within that money it's possible to buy these things.

We're thinking that before you leave, we'll start.

And the city mayor

will invite you to open the center.

You think that's possible before I leave on third of March?

Yeah, why not?

We need to find a room. - Yes.

Hi, Michael. - Hi.

Come into our house.

Thank you, thank you.

To be honest, I don't believe we will be

able to open a home in such a short time.

But even if we do,

Redoy makes it clear that he will never

leave his sister alone in the brothel.

And to buy her freedom from her Madam is not an option for us

because her Madam would just buy another girl with that money.

Shyamal introduces Aleya to me,

a powerful woman who has some authority in the brothel.

Maybe she can help Redoy's sister.

She invites us for tea this afternoon.

If Redoy's Madam finds out

that we plan to liberate her,

then she might punish her.

I will organize it in a way

that she can't harm her.

She won't even know that we have anything to do with it.

Before you leave, they will be free from their Madam.

Before you go back to your country,

you will see that she will...

That would make me very happy.

This sounds too good to be true.

But Shyamal seems to trust her.

Aleya asks me why I came to Bangladesh,

and I realise that Shyamal has his very own explanation.

Michael cried when he saw a movie in Germany.

He saw that a girl was forced to be a sex worker.

As an actor, Michael had once played the son of a prostitute.

That's why he feels so deeply about these girls.

She used to be mine.

She was under her.

Did I understand correctly?

I had almost given up my search.

And now this friendly woman was apparently

the owner of the girl from the movie?

That's Nupur. She works in the C&B brothel now.

What's her name? - Nupur.

That's her. They filmed it here.

She's not as pretty anymore as she was during the interview.

Yes, her words touch the heart.

On the other side of the river, the brothel.

Nupur.

Seven years have passed since she

was interviewed for the movie.

My visit must seem more than absurd to her.

What is she going to think?

He saw the video in Germany.

And his heart felt the pain.

He came here and asked everybody,

"Where can I find this girl?"

He wanted to find you and meet you.

The girl in the video asks questions.

Does she have answers to those questions?

You had asked why this life was so full of suffering.

And you were wondering if there was another way.

Do you have an answer to this question?

The answer...

At that time

I had been thinking that I knew the answer.

Because I had been forced into prostitution against my will.

But now I'm not really forced anymore.

I want an honorable job, I want to get out of this place.

What can I do?

I can't find a way.

I'm tired of fighting.

She doesn't want to stay here and fight like this.

Can you ask her how I could help?

He wants to know

if there is something he could help with?

Could I step out briefly?

But we can also leave.

We can go outside now.

Yes, of course.

What will she do now? - She's telling...

Her honesty, Her thoughtful way of talking...

Without any doubt Nupur is the girl from the movie.

Back then she was sure

that to get access to a better life

she had to get away from her Madam.

When she finally escaped, she understood that the

path back into society was permanently blocked.

Still being here without being directly forced

felt more shameful to her than being in bondage.

But for you?

I'm not thirsty right now.

Will he forget me?

How could I forget her?

We decide to meet again in two days to

discuss with Shyamal what we could do.

Now we must leave.

A client Nupur can't refuse will soon arrive.

While we were visiting Nupur,

the preparations for the home had been running at full speed.

And a period starts during which we work day and night.

We meet politicians, bankers, potential supervisors,

and visit every place which could

in any way be used as a home.

We order beds, buy clothing and school supplies.

Luckily, Chanchala and Shyamal know what

to do from building the girls' home.

So things go fast and smoothly.

We call the project

"Bondhu" -project, friends'-project,

as all the money was donated by friends.

How do you feel?

It's amazing.

Because we are getting a new family.

Are you tired?

So tired.

But it's amazing.

I admit that, while happy, I'm also a bit nervous,

when the kids come to sign up for the home.

How big is the responsibility I'm about to take on?

On the other hand, I will have

thousands of kilometers of privacy,

while Chanchala and Shyamal are really getting a new family.

And they don't seem to be worried at all.

Will you take me?

Can he go to the Bondhu-project?

He has no clue where he belongs. He lives in the brothel.

Take me, I will study.

You don't have family? - No, nobody.

He has no-one? - No.

Who is taking care of him now?

He's staying at somebody's house and working.

Really? - Yes.

Yes, then he can come.

You can pick him up tomorrow at ten o'clock.

Then you come with me.

I will be here and come out of this stable.

What's your name? - Maruk.

Michael. Nice to meet you.

Can you take a picture of me?

Don't worry.

You'll have enough time for taking pictures.

Nupur has built up some debts during the

last few years, which we just can't pay.

They are almost as high as the costs for the kids' home.

Nupur thinks she could pay part of it, if

she worked another six months at the brothel.

She asks us to finance a training

course in a beauty parlor.

It wasn't easy to find somebody to train her.

But the combination of Shyamal's connections and

the "white man with camera" strategy made it happen.

We don't have many clients in the mornings,

most of them come in the afternoon.

It's the same in the brothel. - At what time?

At three o'clock or latest at half past four.

She can come at 10 o'clock.

OK. Very good.

She can start tomorrow.

It will be very busy tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the busy day?

Tomorrow, yes?

Their busy day, so...

She can come from the day after tomorrow.

OK. They have busy day here tomorrow?

Ah, OK, OK. No, in the brothel.

OK, so the day after tomorrow.

Since she was 14, Nupur has been

living in the brothel. Now we all

hope that in six months, a new

stage of life will begin for her.

The last days of my stay,

and there is one more journey to make.

Monica's family can't come

to the government home to pick her up.

But the home management makes an exception

and allows us to drive her to her family.

As a farewell present from me,

the girls had asked for a small karaoke machine.

Now they sing a farewell song for Monica.

When I saw you the first time,

I thought you were like my father.

Finally, Monica and her brother are lying in each

other's arms for the first time in four years.

I couldn't believe that you were still alive.

I'll hide in your luggage to come with you.

If he loves me, he will take me with him.

If he doesn't, he won't.

You can tell him that I would really love to take him with me,

but it's not possible, it's against the law.

Believe me, he really loves you,

but the government won't allow him to bring you.

That's not true. I will travel in his luggage.

How will you do that?

Nobody can stop me, I'll go with him.

How?

Bring me along and I will make it.

How can I stay here?

Redoy decided not to leave his sister alone in the brothel,

so he's not amongst the boys who will

now move into the Bondhu home.

We had finally managed to rent a little house.

Many of the boys have never met,

but all of them are eager

to help to make it their new home.

If I had to guess what Nupur would

ask for as a farewell present,

I would never have imagined it would be a big teddy bear.

But I also would not have imagined that one

could take three hours to choose the right one.

She does not seem completely happy.

I think it should be a bear, she's seeing the bear,

and then she... her heart jumps and says,

"Oh, I want that one."

All right, she likes this one?

Ask him if he likes it.

Do you like this one? - Yes, I like it. I like him.

Are you lying or telling the truth?

I'm so happy, I would have never thought

that things could change like that.

You know, I lived in a dark place

and now there's light.

To be honest, I wonder how all this happened to me.

What if I don't manage to follow through with all this?

The journey that I have started, will I be able to finish it?

Sometimes I get scared. Will I make it?

I mean...

I don't know.

When I was a kid, I had this dream,

that I would study

and take care of my mother and my sisters.

So many things have happened...

Back then I was so full of hope.

When I say goodbye to Redoy,

he's still living in the brothel.

It has not been possible to liberate his sister yet.

Her Madam is too powerful.

He only allows me to leave under the promise

that I will come back in one year.

By then, he says, he will also have grown a beard.

Redoy's sister couldn't get free.

But they managed to run off together.

For some years there was no trace of them.

Recently I received a message that

they had been seen in Faridpur.

I really hope to see them on my next visit.

Nupur finished her job training.

Sometimes she works as a cosmetician.

But she fell in love with a staff member from the brothel

and hasn't made it out of prostitution yet.

Hafeza reported her Madam and her

human trafficker to the police.

Because of bribes, her Madam wasn't punished.

But the trafficker is in pre-trial custody.

Despite the hostilities from the village community

Hafeza was readmitted into her family.

Padma's parents allowed her to come home after three months.

She lives with her family now.

The girls' situation in the "safe home"

is improving very slowly.

Society and their families consider

them as perpetrators and not as victims.

This makes it impossible for them to

have a free and self-determined life.

Faridpur has now two homes for kids from the brothels.

A Bondhu-home for 23 boys and one for 50 girls.

The kids are supervised 24/7 and go to school.

The homes are run by Chanchala and Shyamal

with support from the Bondhu-project.

We get in contact once a week.

Once a year I go to Bangladesh to visit everyone.

Special thanks to the women and girls in this movie

for sharing their story with us,

and their courage to speak in front of the camera.