Gita is naive enough to fall in love with a cunning customer, but clever enough to hide her earnings inside a secret pocket in her blanket. She is angry about the bullying from other girls in the brothel, but she also forms friendships with them. In Lakshmi’s experience, human resiliency rides alongside betrayal, trickery, and violence. And while the story is heart-wrenching, it shows the power of young people to stand up for themselves.

“Heroes lift us up. They give us courage. They nourish us as humans,” said Sold’s director, Oscar-winner Jeffrey Brown. “For me, this is definitely a film about human trafficking. But it’s also a film about transcending your fear and not being a prisoner to your fear.”
When McCormick wrote the novel on which the film is based, she chose to write for young adults because she believes kids care about understanding what is happening to their peers, like Lakshmi, around the world.
“They have a reputation for being self-centered, which I really disagree with,” she said, citing young people’s “enormous” capacity for empathy and activism. McCormick said young readers have tremendous discernment and don’t want to be protected from life’s realities.