Regarding the movie, Angel Studios portrayed the characters authentically. Giselle, the woman who kidnapped the children, is actually Kelly Johana Suarez. Like in the film, Kelly was Miss Cartagena in a beauty pageant and appeared in a music video giving her wide popularity. This strengthened her trust in her community, so she started recruiting young boys and girls with the promise that they’ll get a modeling job. However, she was seen at a beach party where 25 minors were allegedly drugged and being sold to tourists; she was then arrested.
Vampiro is another character that was based on a real-life person; he goes by Batman to keep his identity safe. In the film, he helps Tim throughout his journey in saving the children, and this is true. His backstory was also true, but with a change to add depth to the character.
Tim Ballard was portrayed somewhat accurately to his real-life counterpart. For example, Tim quit his job after being told that he could no longer continue his case. He had two different cases, but the movie focused on the Colombia mission. Tim stated in an interview that there were parts that were different from his real experience, some being that they saved 120 children on the island and not 54. The jungle scene where Tim went to save Rocio Aguilar was inspired by another mission Tim had. The big mission in the movie was when they caught the traffickers on the island; this was called Operation Triple Take.
Yes, human trafficking is a real thing we shouldn’t ignore. The opinion these types of films create is that they exaggerate a bit, especially when it comes to action/fighting scenes. We think the movie, Taken, is one of those movies where it’s a bit hard to believe if it was based on a true story. We do like that Sound of Freedom shows a somewhat more accurate depiction of human trafficking than Taken. At the end of the film, they do show videos of what happened on the island and other events that were portrayed in the film.
