The 2011 edition of ICCL (Irish Council for Civil Liberties) Human Rights Film Awards 2011, held in June, was won by the short fim Escúchame (Listen to me), produced in Spain by Mabel Lozano, actress and director.
Ms Lozano’s civil activism developed during her early career in the entertainment world and increasingly focused on the issue of the denied rights of women and girls in the world, particularly on sex trade.

In a few minutes, thanks to a visual impact, sometimes shocking, the short film Escúchame tells the true story of Svetlana Demidovitch – Inna, fake name – a girl from Belarus who plays herself or one of the many victims of a long journey that begins with the promise of a secure job in one of the nations of the European Union, only to end up on some sidewalk to sell their bodies to hundreds of male buyers.

800: this is the number of customers who, within just five months, have paid to have Inna’s body for a few minutes, as it emerged from Ms Lozano’s short. That’s all we know, we can not say more, because this short story is going around the world in the many short films contests where this short film is enrolled from time to time.

It is precisely the presence of so many customers which favour – for the benefit of exploiters – a human trade which, recently, has been denounced by the association Medicos del Mundo (http://www.medicosdelmundo.org/). Medicos del Mundo collaborated with Ms Lozano for the realization of this short film. This sex business makes millions of euros, as reported in this shocking example of short film, whose message is made even more raw by its minimalist style and lean dialogues.

As the same author pointed out, during the ceremony at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin, “One of the worst violations of human rights that comes to mind is the trafficking of women and girls, the buying and selling of human beings as if they were bags or shoes. I hope that my film will help to highlight this serious violation of human rights. “

Sexual slavery is an ugly international history, woven and held together by groups of men belonging to criminal organizations around the world. In the case of Mabel Lozano, it is Spain, which has close relations with people of all walks of life – all ‘seemingly normal family men – who are often unaware that stories of hundreds of enslaved women, lie behind their search for paid sex. A “normal” offering that has been reported to the European Day against trafficking in human beings, on October 18th, 2011.

Escuchame had the merit, while it denounced one of the most terrible ever existing crimes, to bring to light for the first time the phenomenon of the thousands of customers dealing with women sex trade in the world. According to the Spanish Ministerio de igualdad 80% women selling their bodies entered the Iberian state through sex trade. A real dreadful accusation. This is a deprivation of freedom as well.