‘Horrifying’ human trafficking story becomes full-length movie filmed in North Dakota

BISMARCK — Ejaz Khan was in the middle of filming a movie about horses in Linton, North Dakota, when he waltzed into a gas station for coffee.

Standing behind him with no shoes on — in the dead of winter — was a young woman who he later learned was a survivor of child sex trafficking. While also battling addiction, she was still shackled to the industry as a sex worker.

That was over four years ago. The New Yorker was still completing

“Before They Vanish”

— released in 2022 — when he became friendly with the woman after buying her food.

Upon hearing the shoeless woman’s “horrifying” life story, Khan’s focus whipped from horses to victims and survivors of child sex trafficking.

“After that, I just was devastated. I went back home, spoke to my wife and said, ‘Here we are creating this film on horses and donating proceeds,’ ” he recounted. “But yet, look at this human. Look at what her family members have done to her.’”

The moment was the inspiration for “Trapped,” which follows the story of a young girl who is being sex trafficked by her mother’s boyfriend.

Filmed

entirely in subzero Linton,

Khan said the plot was inspired by the woman he met at the gas station.

Sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking.

According to the North Dakota

Human Trafficking Guide,

the term is used to describe the process of recruiting, harboring, transporting and/or soliciting a person to perform forced, coerced sex acts for money. Victims and survivors can be of any age but are often people who were minors at the time of the crime.

Statewide data from North Dakota’s annual

Human Trafficking Report

documents 102 sex trafficking victims and just two arrests made in 2023.

Nearly one in four of those women trafficked identified as American Indian or Alaska Native, according to the report.

Khan told Forum News Service that the movie doesn’t specifically point to the disproportionate effects sex trafficking has on Native American communities since it follows the story of the woman he met in Linton, who he said didn’t identify as Native American.

However, the director said Native American women still inspire aspects of the movie, having made up a notable portion of the more than 80 survivors with whom he spoke throughout the production process.

A screening of the movie will take place Wednesday, Nov. 13, at the Grand 22 Theater in Bismarck. Lt. Gov.-elect Michelle Strinden is set to attend as an audience member along with Attorney General Drew Wrigley, who is currently on the list as a “maybe.”

Audience members are by invitation only, including people who belong to related organizations in addition to community leaders.

There will also be representatives from the 31:8 Project,

a resource based in Bismarck

for survivors of human and sex trafficking. Khan worked with the organization while filming the movie.

“Trapped” will be officially released on Jan. 31, 2025, during Human Trafficking Prevention Month. It will be available on Amazon, Google Play and iTunes.

Though the movie is not yet rated, Khan said the crew has worked “very hard” to bring down its rating to PG so that all audiences can learn from its subject material.

“As a director, I’m saying that it’s going to be very uncomfortable. But just imagine what an hour and a half can do. Put yourself in that hour and a half-hour, 40 minutes, of discomfort to help your own children. That’s all I’m asking for,” Khan said.

“Don’t sweep it under the rug,” he said. “We have to face it. Period.”