Cecilia

The ugly horrors of child trafficking are examined in Pankaj Johar’s enlightening documentary CECILIA. Johar and his wife, Sunaina, live in New Delhi. When their maid, Cecilia, learns her 14-year-old daughter, Mati, has died, the Johars join her in a lengthy legal ordeal. Was Mati murdered? Did she kill herself? Who is responsible? The young girl represents thousands of children taken from poor villages and sent to work in India’s cities. Cecilia’s anguish grows as she receives little help from the police or the people back in her village (who are being threatened or bribed). On the upside, we are introduced to justice-seeking child labor activists, including Nobel Peace Prize-winner Kailash Satyarthi. The film also tracks the Johars’ frustrating journey and the toll it takes as they crash into walls of confusion and corruption. They are trying to be part of the solution, but they are also part of the problem. India’s rising middle class has created a boom in the demand for domestic help, which in turn only fuels the traffickers. (In English, Hindi, and Bengali with subtitles) –C.O.