Sound of Freedom: Harrowing but redemptive drama on child sex trafficking

Jim Caviezel has played many film roles, with his turn as Jesus in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004) and his starring role on the popular TV series Person of Interest (2011-2016) ranking as his biggest triumphs. It means something, therefore, that he considers his soon-to-be-released movie Sound of Freedom to be “the second most important film I’ve done after The Passion of the Christ.”

It’s easy to see why. Sound of Freedom is a powerful drama that calls attention to one of the great evils of our present world: the global sex trafficking of children, which enslaves up to 2 million young people worldwide — and tens of thousands even within the U.S. — who are taken, groomed, sold, and coerced into sexual abuse or prostitution.

Sound of Freedom, which hits theaters July 4, dramatizes the true story of Tim Ballard (Caviezel), a former U.S. Homeland Security special agent who, frustrated at the limitations of combatting the sexual exploitation of children domestically, quits his job to dedicate himself full time to rescuing children from sex traffickers internationally. When a boy he has rescued asks him to find his sister, Ballard goes off script to track her down, a quest that takes him and his team into dangerous rebel-held jungles of Colombia in order to save her. 

The real-life Ballard assembled a team of former agents into a private foundation called Our Underground Railroad that continues to work internationally today, infiltrating and destroying child sex-trafficking rings. OUR also partners with vetted aftercare providers and with agencies that find families for rescued children.

Sound of Freedom is a gripping drama that portrays the shocking truth about child trafficking realistically without becoming exploitative itself. It shines light on the horror, raising awareness about a tragedy that is broader in scope and hits closer to home than many might realize. That makes this an important film indeed, for as Caviezel’s Ballard says in explaining his mission, “God’s children are not for sale.”