Back in the day, Requiem (Noel Brendan Mcalley) was a feared hitman - but then he went to prison for manslaughter and pretty much lost it all, the respect of his father (Nicholas Ball), his wife Sasha (Lacey Bond), and even his daughter who doesn't know to this day he even exists. Requiem has since become a debt collector to make ends meet, but he doesn't enjoy his job too much ... and then he learns he has terminal cancer and only about 5 months to live. Then on a job, he stumbles upon a trio of human traffickers (Steve Wraith, Nina Cranstown, Aaron Twinn) and kind of sees it his moral duty to free 12 year old Elsie (Evie Hughes), whose parents (Sian Altman, Greg Burridge) from their grip, in an effort to do at least one thing meaningful in his life. However, freeing Elsie was the easy part. Thing is, the three traffickers are determined to get her back, even if that means killing everybody in their way - including Requiem's only friend (Jimmy 'The Bee' Bennett) -, and they've got a powerful organisation lead by the Duke (Michael McKell) behind them. In his desparation, Requiem turns to his estranged father who lives in deepest Scotland for help - but will dad ever be able to forgive him for his messed up life ...

On the surface, Trafficking seems like a pretty routine thriller, with all the action and suspense in all the right places, plus plenty of violence without going overboard, and plenty of genre tropes to make it easy to follow. However, Trafficking is also a film with lots of heart not usually found in a film like this, as it works equally well as a character study of a dying man desparately seeking redemption. And what makes this film really work is that writer/director Richard John Taylor has found just the right balance between these two approaches and manages to keep the audience entertained while keeping things engaging and intelligent enough. And an atmosphere-heavy direction and a solid cast really help bringing the film over the finish line rather beautifully, making this good and clever genre entertainment.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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