MUMBAI: Tabrez Noorani, a producer on the Academy Award-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire,” will direct a movie on sex trafficking after first encountering victims of the trade in Los Angeles more than 10 years ago.
“Love Sonia,” which starts filming next week, will feature actress Freida Pinto, who starred in “Slumdog Millionaire,” with newcomer Mrunal Thakur in the lead role.
“This is a movie that found me,” Noorani told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in Mumbai, where he is scouting for locations. “It’s a story that needs to be told, to show the plight of these girls, what they go through.” Noorani, whose production credits also include “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Life of Pi” and “Eat, Pray, Love,” said his introduction to human trafficking was in Los Angeles in 2003, when some girls were found in a container shipped from China. One of the victims was a young Indian girl, he said.
The incident inspired Noorani to work with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) focused on trafficking in Los Angeles, as well as groups in India and Hong Kong. He has participated in several raids of brothels, he said.
He then spent years working on the screenplay. The film, which marks Noorani’s directorial debut, tells the story of Sonia, a young Indian village girl who gets trapped in the global sex trade industry.
Securing investors was a challenge, he said.
Freida Pinto to star in Indian sex trafficking film ‘Love Sonia’
Freida Pinto to star in Indian sex trafficking film ‘Love Sonia’
Cambodia takes back looted historic artifacts handled by British art dealer
- The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodian officials on Friday received more than six dozen historic artifacts described as part of the country’s cultural heritage that had been looted during decades of war and instability.
At a ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister Hun Many, the 74 items were unveiled at the National Museum in Phnom Penh after their repatriation from the United Kingdom.
The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia.
“This substantial restitution represents one of the most important returns of Khmer cultural heritage in recent years, following major repatriations in 2021 and 2023 from the same collection,” the Culture Ministry said in a statement. “It marks a significant step forward in Cambodia’s continued efforts to recover, preserve, and restore its ancestral legacy for future generations.”
The artifacts were described as dating from the pre-Angkorian period through the height of the Angkor Empire, including “monumental sandstone sculptures, refined bronze works, and significant ritual objects.” The Angkor Empire, which extended from the ninth to the 15th century, is best known for the Angkor Wat archaeological site, the nation’s biggest tourist attraction.
Latchford was a prominent antiquities dealer who allegedly orchestrated an operation to sell looted Cambodian sculptures on the international market.
From 1970 to the 1980s, during Cambodia’s civil wars and the communist Khmer Rouge ‘s brutal reign, organized looting networks sent artifacts to Latchford, who then sold them to Western collectors, dealers, and institutions. These pieces were often physically damaged, having been pried off temple walls or other structures by the looters.
Latchford was indicted in a New York federal court in 2019 on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy. He died in 2020, aged 88, before he could be extradited to face charges.
Cambodia, like neighboring Thailand, has benefited from a trend in recent decades involving the repatriation of art and archaeological treasures. These include ancient Asian artworks as well as pieces lost or stolen during turmoil in places such as Syria, Iraq and Nazi-occupied Europe. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the prominent institutions that has been returning illegally smuggled art, including to Cambodia.
“The ancient artifacts created and preserved by our ancestors are now being returned to Cambodia, bringing warmth and joy, following the country’s return to peace,” said Hun Many, who is the younger brother of Prime Minister Hun Manet.
