BISMARCK — Ejaz Khan was in the middle of shooting a movie about horses in Linton, North Dakota, when he waltzed into a gas station for coffee.

Behind him, shoeless in the dead of winter, was a young woman who he later learned was a survivor of child sex trafficking. While also struggling with addiction, she was still tied to the industry as a sex worker.

That was over four years ago. The New Yorker was still finishing

“Before It’s Gone”

— released in 2022 — when he befriended the woman after buying her food.

After hearing the shoeless woman’s “horrific” life story, Khan’s focus shifted from horses to victims and survivors of child sex trafficking.

“After that, I was just devastated. I came home, talked to my wife and said, ‘Here, we’re making this movie about horses and donating the proceeds,'” he recounted. “But still, look at this man. Look what her family members did to her.”

The moment was the inspiration for “Trapped,” which follows the story of a young girl who is sexually trafficked by her mother’s boyfriend.

Contributed / Cinema Ejaz Khan

Filmed

entirely below zero Linton,

Khan said the plot was inspired by the woman he met at the gas station.

Sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking.

According to North Dakota

Guidelines on human trafficking,

the term is used to describe the process of recruiting, harboring, transporting and/or soliciting a person to perform forced, coerced sexual acts for money. Victims and survivors can be of any age, but are often people who were minors at the time of the crime.

State-level data from North Dakota annually

Report on human trafficking

documents 102 victims of sex trafficking and only two arrests made in 2023.

According to the report, nearly one in four of the trafficked women identified themselves as American Indian or Alaska Native.

Khan told Forum News Service that the film does not specifically address the disproportionate effects sex trafficking has on Native American communities because it follows the story of the woman he met in Linton, who he said did not identify as native american

However, the director said Native American women still inspire aspects of the film, being a notable part of the more than 80 survivors he spoke to throughout the production process.

Contributed / Cinema Ejaz Khan

A screening of the film will be held on Wednesday, November 13 at the Grand 22 Theater in Bismarck. Lt. Gov.-elect Michelle Strinden is slated to attend as an audience member along with Attorney General Drew Wrigley, who is currently on the “maybe” list.

Members of the public are by invitation only, including people from related organizations in addition to community leaders.

There will also be representatives of the 31:8 Project,

a resource based in Bismarck

for survivors of human and sex trafficking. Khan worked with the organization while shooting the film.

“Trapped” will be officially released on January 31, 2025, during Human Trafficking Prevention Month. It will be available on Amazon, Google Play and iTunes.

Although the film is not yet rated, Khan said the team worked “very hard” to lower its rating to PG so that all audiences can learn from its subject material.

“As a director, I say it will be very uncomfortable. But imagine what an hour and a half can do. Put yourself through that hour and a half, 40 minutes, of discomfort to help your own children. That’s all I ask,” Khan said.

“Don’t sweep it under the rug,” he said. “We have to face it. Period.”