Please, please, PLEASE don't let this film be another white savior story. That's the only thing I see as a possible red flag after reading about SOLD, the upcoming film that tells the story of a 13-year-old girl who is abducted and trafficked across the Nepal-India border. Because it's so rare that we get to have a film released in America with a young brown girl as the protagonist and featured on the movie poster; to think that her narrative might be usurped by the heroic arcs of characters played by Gillian Anderson and David Arquette would be too unfortunate for words.

But anyway, let me hop off my soapbox and tell you more about the film. Oscar-winning director Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Molly's Pilgrim) directs Niyar Saikia as Lakshmi in this adaptation based upon the international bestselling novel by Patricia McCormick and inspired by actual events. Emma Thompson executive produced the film, which was written by Joseph Kwong. More in the synopsis:

A young girl, Lakshmi, leaves her home in a quiet village in the Nepali Himalayas in the expectation of a job in big city India. However, upon her arrival in Kolkata, she soon realizes she has been trafficked into a prison brothel, where she must struggle daily to survive against impossible odds. A US photographer (Gillian Anderson) hears her cries for help and works with an NGO, to spearhead a dangerous mission to rescue her. Finally, Lakshmi must risk everything for freedom. SOLD is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and a clarion call to action.