DVD Review: The Storm Makers

The Storm Makers is a powerful documentary film about Cambodia’s human trafficking problem. As the film opens, we’re told: “Half a million Cambodians work abroad. A third of them have been sold as slaves, in Thailand, Malaysia or Taiwan.” Most are women, who work as maids and then are sold as prostitutes. The opening images are of women shipped on a truck, with wire over the windows.

We are then introduced to a poor family in Cambodia, seeing them collecting snails in muddy water, chopping wood, cooking, before learning who they are. The mother suddenly tells us: “I no longer have feelings for my daughter. Not since she had a child. My daughter is the only one who came back with a child. Some migrants die abroad, others come back mutilated. But she returned with this child. And now I have to take care of him… Sometimes I’d like her to sell him.” It’s kind of an amazing introduction. But what follows is even more powerful. There is footage of the mother and daughter arguing, as it was the mother who had sent her to Malaysia, where she was beaten and raped. The daughter tells her: “You prefer money to your children. Did you ever love me?” The mother calls her a “slut” and “worthless.” But more heart-rending than the argument is when the daughter says it’s too late for her to be angry. This young woman is the main focus of the film.

The film also introduces us to a man who owns an agency which recruits migrant workers. He tells some young recruits his story, saying, “I’m not trying to cheat you or impoverish you.” And then we see them paying for his dubious services. The man is surprisingly candid with us about what he does, saying: “I target the poorest ones. These people are easy to lure, to convince and to recruit.” Most are illiterate, and he tells us, “They have nothing to lose.” He promises them good salaries.

The film in large part goes back and forth between the young woman whose life has been ruined and the man whose life has been enriched by these actions. The young woman recounts the story of what happened to her in Malaysia. “I worked to exhaustion, but I was never paid.” She tells us how she was locked in, that her boss claimed he bought her from the agency, how he beat her. While she describes this incredible ordeal, we see her doing the most mundane of tasks, washing and scrubbing at home. She then tells us how she eventually ran away, only to be raped and kidnaped by another man until the police rescued her. The police arrested the man who raped her, but because the first man had stolen her passport, they arrested her as well. Her story is so heartbreaking and so infuriating, and yet she tells it with a quiet acceptance, her emotions not so much held in check as completely obliterated.

In contrast, we see the recruiter working out at a gym and going for a swim at a pool. The film also shows him going on to some new recruits about how he doesn’t lie because he believes in Jesus Christ. It seems strange that they would trust someone who keeps insisting he doesn’t lie. The film’s title comes from the human traffickers being referred to as “storm makers” because “When they arrive in a village, they bring the storm and tears with them.” The film doesn’t seem to judge (there’s no narrator present to condemn these actions), but rather just presents the situation, and partly because of that, it is all the more chilling.

The Storm Makers was directed by Guillaume Suon, and was released on DVD on November 24, 2015 through First Run Features. The DVD contains no special features.