Movie Reviews

Movie Review: A Former Child Slave Dedicates His Life To Rescuing Others In “The Rescue List”


 

Two boys escape from slavery, spend a year in a rehabilitation shelter, and eventually reunite with their families. Meanwhile, the man who rescued them launches another mission to liberate more children. For him, the work is personal.

A hydroelectric dam on Ghana’s Volta River became the largest man-made lake on earth and a place where enslaved children are forced to work. With families living below the poverty level, fishermen offer a mere $40 to the families for their child’s labor but most families never see their child again. The children are denied education and are physically abused while forced to work long hours that include diving to the bottom of the lake, untangling nets where some would get trapped and die.

Kwame, a former child slave who also worked at the river has dedicated his life rescuing children sold into slavery. As he captures two young boys, they provide him with a list of names of others who’ve vanished at the river. As Kwame and his team set out to search for the others, the two boys remain at a safe shelter where they undergo therapy, attend school for the first time and prepare to return home after many years. As the two boys, 19 and 14, enter 3rd and 4th grade, they begin their journey of healing and hope for a better future.

This documentary is scary and shocking, especially when you learn the family is responsible for selling their own children but at the same time, you feel so much hope as Kwame stops at nothing to find as many children as he can and put an end to this terrible crime. With no government funding, he has already rescued over 1,000 children and continues to do so, warning the parents that if their child is re-trafficked they will face up to 15 years in prison. I’m still in disbelief that there are over 20,000 children enslaved to fishermen in remoter regions of Lake Volta.

 

“The Rescue List” airs on PBS Monday, March 23rd

 

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Malika Harris

Malika is a Writer from NYC who loves movies and talking about them.