A young Chinese girl named Mudan (Nicole Nishimoto) dreams of going to America with her mother. Her fantasies take her to a beautiful field and she is running with her mother toward a large farm house is the distance. She imagines the U.S. flag as a beacon of hope.

Then her sleep is interrupted by the bouncing of the truck in which she is riding. The truck, the door opens and the dim light reveals the child to be about eight or nine. She carries a picture she has drawn of her with her mother; it is what she dreams. A woman, in traditional Chinese dress, Madam Zhao (Yaping), beckons her out of the truck, takes her by the hand, and leads her to a dwelling. It is night. The little one joins other young girls asleep on mats.

Mudan does not know where she is. The woman comes again and demands that the girls wake and dress because they have customers….

"The Fields of Mudan" is a harrowing story about human trafficking and the sex trade. Written and directed in 2004 by Stevo Chang, a graduate student of the Film School at Florida State University in Tallahassee, it was a 2006 Academy Awards qualifier in the category of narrative short film.

"This film raises disturbing questions," said Sister Mary Geninio, justice coordinator for the Western Province of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. "Did Mudan's mother sell her or was she kidnapped? Where is this kind of thing happening? Is it going on in the United States?"

Sister Genino said that almost one million people are trafficked globally each year for purposes of forced labor, domestic slavery, coerced prostitution, and sexual servitude; most of these victims are women and children. Between 20,000 and 50,000 persons are trafficked to the United States each year as well.

Recently, trafficking has been the subject of news and dramatic TV programs. In 2004, the NBC news magazine "Dateline" went undercover in Cambodia to investigate this form of modern-day slavery; episodes of NBC's "Law and Order" have featured this alarming story; and Lifetime recently aired a worthy and explicitly intense miniseries, "Human Trafficking."

"The Fields of Mudan" opts for a different approach than the latter program, inviting us to accompany this young girl for 20 minutes and allowing our imaginations fill in the details. Whereas "Human Trafficking" presented a reality in a visceral way, almost too ugly and terrible to believe, "Mudan" suggests it so that we are able to feel the heartbreak of ruined lives up close and personal.

Amnesty International (www.amnestusa.org), through its Artists for Amnesty program in Los Angeles and Pax Christi (www.paxchristi.net) are involved in efforts to halt this nightmare. "The Fields of Mudan" is appropriate for high school students and for classes and groups studying social justice themes.

In early January, Pope Benedict XVI told the Holy See diplomatic corps that the world cannot "overlook the scourge of human trafficking, which remains a disgrace in our time" and (according to a 2004 U.N. estimate) a $9.5 billion industry. On Jan. 10, President Bush signed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (the original act was signed into law in 2000) to combat human trafficking within the United States.

Last month, a government web site reported that the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement has made 5,400 arrests and obtained 2,300 convictions in cases of human trafficking and smuggling since 2003 (see www.isinfo.state.gov).

Dr. Janice Shaw Course of Concerned Women for America outlined three things that must happen to stop trafficking in the sex trade: Stop the supply through awareness campaigns; find and prosecute the traffickers; and end the demand for prostitutes.

"Human trafficking," said Sister Genino, who works with a group of women religious from various congregations to stop this crime against humanity, "is the tragedy of the 21st century." "The Fields of Mudan," she asserted, "captures quite poignantly the experience of the abyss between hope and despair."

For more on the film, visit www.fieldsofmudan.com.

Daughter of St. Paul Sister Rose Pacatte is director of Pauline Books and Media, Culver City, and co-author of the "Lights, Camera, Faith!" Movie Lectionary Series.