Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: Who directed Nefarious: Merchant of Souls?
Nolot then wrote,[10] directed, produced, and narrated Nefarious: Merchant of Souls, a documentary film about human trafficking.[1] He also conducted the interviews in the film, speaking with such people as a police officer and a pimp.[3] Other scenes depict Nolot doing things like chasing a pedophile out of a town in which he was trying to purchase the right to sexually abuse a child.[1] The film was distributed by Exodus Cry.[11] Nefarious was Nolot's film debut.[1] Filming started in 2007. Nolot travelled to 19 different countries to collect the film's content.[3] These filming locations included countries in the Middle East, Europe, North America, and Asia.[4] Nolot attested to having found producing the film difficult because of the subject matter; he stated that "there is not a day that goes by that I am not mindful of the horrific tragedies we uncovered". He further said that he did not make the film in order to make money or gain fame, but rather, to rouse people to action against human trafficking, an issue he finds both personal and important.[3] Dan Preston of Godculture Magazine praised Nolot's writing and directing of the film.[10] Nolot said that the purpose of the film is "to draw people's attention to the issue, but also to inspire them in terms of what they can be doing... to take a stand against this injustice".[7] At the 2011 California Film Awards, Nefarious made Nolot the Grand Winner in the Best First-Time Documentary category.[12] At the 2012 Kingdomwood Christian Film Festival, Nolot was named Best Director.[13]
Dr. Nefarious later returns as the main antagonist in "" (which is foreshadowed in the ending of ""). Having crash-landed on the planet Zanifar and gained the trust of the local Fongoids, Nefarious explains that as he tried to comprehend how his past plans had always failed, he learned of the Great Clock and devised a plan to use it to alter history so that the villains always defeat the heroes (unaware of the fact that his plan would result in the entire Universe's destruction). Nefarious uses his trust with the Fongoids to have them build a fortress for himself, then summons the creator of the Great Clock, Orvus, to extract information from him regarding the Clock's operation. Though Orvus remains defiant and escapes, Nefarious learns that Clank is the key to accessing the Clock.
Two years later (the present day in which the game takes place), Nefarious has moved from his fortress to a large space station designed in the image of his head and is terrorizing the Polaris Galaxy with aid from Lord Vorselon and the Valkyries. His plans to harness the Great Clock have not abated, and he orders Lawrence to observe Clank in secret from within the Clock. After Clank opens the Orvus Chamber, Lawrence knocks him out and reports the news to Nefarious. The doctor then gleefully starts "Unnecessarily Evil Initiative Omega-91" by using Clank as bait to lure Ratchet into a Valkyrie ambush. With "help" from Captain Qwark, Ratchet and Clank infiltrate Nefarious's space station and destroy his fleet of ships, but are captured and brought before Nefarious. After explaining the full extent of his plans, Nefarious ejects the two heroes with his "Asteroid Flinger 5000" (installed in the case that he needs an ironic death scenario for his enemies). After surviving a crash landing on planet Morklon and going back in time to help the Fongoids win the Battle of Gimlick Valley, Ratchet and Clank commandeer a ship back to the space station and stop Nefarious from boarding his last remaining ship to the Great Clock. In the end, Dr. Nefarious is again defeated by Ratchet and Clank and falls screaming to his ship's surface. Upon landing, he suffers a complete system breakdown (characterized by random music signals and dancing) before his ship crashes into the space station and destroys it. Though Ratchet and Clank escape in time with aid from Azimuth, it is reported during the credits that Nefarious's body was not found in the wreckage. In the "Ratchet & Clank" comic series and "All 4 One", Qwark confirms that Lawrence teleported Nefarious away in time and that he is still considered to be within the Polaris System.
Doctor Nefarious is a playable character in the game "", where he initially triggers the plot by tricking Qwark into fighting a giant Light-eating Z'Grute only to be attacked by his own creature. When Ratchet and Clank try to stop it, they, Qwark, and Nefarious are all captured by the Creature Collector Ephemeris, and the villainous robot is forced to work with the heroes to escape. Despite his dislike of his "partners", Nefarious slowly warms up to playing the hero, even going so far as to save Qwark on a few occasions. In the end, Nefarious reasserts his supervillain attitude and escapes, though a final scene hints that he may not have been completely ungrateful for his temporary friends. Nefarious appears as an downloadable skin in "". Outside of the Ratchet and Clank series, Nefarious cameos in the San Francisco level of "PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale", and was originally planned as a playable character in the game alongside Ratchet and Clank. Nefarious also appeared as an unlockable Chibi-sized Minion in a patch for the game.
A 55-year-old woman from England tells the story of how she was first prostituted in Boscombe, near Bournemouth in Dorset, after being raped as a child in the council houses where she grew up. She describes running away, being raped again at the age of 13 and then being locked in a wardrobe in Manchester, and says that she found this situation normal at the time as it was the only life she knew. She eventually became addicted to heroin. She then describes a vision of Jesus that she says gave her the strength to escape sexual trafficking at the age of 40 and heroin six years later. Other victims of trafficking speak about having been the objects of physical abuse and attempted murder. Nevada prostitutes describe having gone into prostitution in Las Vegas after watching the film "Pretty Woman". Several former prostitutes talk about their conversion to Christianity, escape from sexual oppression, and subsequent education or marriage. Some of them cry while telling their stories. Lobert calls prostitution "the greatest acting job", explaining that prostitutes have to constantly feign enjoyment while actually feeling none. Before "Nefarious" was completed, one of the former prostitutes interviewed for the film returned to prostitution, a fact acknowledged in the film.
Johnny Liu of Game Revolution said that Doctor Nefarious' "psychotic babbling [...] strikes the right balance between threatening and comical". He was included in GameSpot's "All Time Greatest Video Game Villain" contest and reached the "Round 1a" before losing to Dr. Wily. Dr. Nefarious was listed as the sixth the best videogame villain on PS3 by "PlayStation Official Magazine". IGN ranked him 65th on their list of "The Top 100 Videogame Villains", saying he is evil, "but evil in the most loveable way" and that "one of Dr. Nefarious' most charming quirks is his tendency to blow a fuse and stop mid-sentence, occasionally picking up soap opera radio waves in the process" when he is under stress (especially since it's always a Lance and Janice episode). GamesRadar listed Nefarious as one of "Gaming's maddest mad doctors". He was ranked seventh in the "Top Ten A.I. Characters of the Decade" article by Matt Miller from "Game Informer", who wrote "Dr. Nefarious is just the villain that this sci-fi series needed. [...] A great villain can make a story, and Nefarious hits all the right notes to fit the franchise."
A female human trafficking victim is interviewed with her face hidden. She describes how she and other human trafficking victims in Eastern Europe were held in buildings with security cameras, where they were forced to walk naked down a runway before a group of men who watched under the guise of attending a fashion show. She then describes being auctioned off to the audience members, who she says examined her off the runway as one might examine cattle.
"Nefarious: Merchant of Souls" documents modern human trafficking, specifically sexual slavery. While there are men and boys who are trafficked around the world, the United States Department of State (DoS) estimates that about 80% of human trafficking victims are female, and the film focuses on them. Information is presented from a Christian worldview—despite the subject matter, there is no profanity or nudity in the film, although there are scenes showing alcohol consumption and women wearing skimpy clothing.
Nefarious: Merchant of Souls
In her interview, Swedish Detective Superintendent Kajsa Wahlberg describes purchasing sex from a prostitute as paying to masturbate into someone. The leader of an organization working to rescue girls from prostitution in Cambodia says that it is not the poorest parents who sell their children into sexual slavery but rather the parents who are looking to buy luxury goods. He therefore argues that sex trafficking is a spiritual and moral issue that cannot be solved by education or money. In another interview, a man purchasing sex in Thailand says that he believes the girls are happy to be working as prostitutes. Another interview features an American man who had been a sex tourist in Asia.
"Nefarious" was released on home video on May 1, 2012. On June 26, the film made its British premiere, following which an interactive panel was held in which the audience was encouraged to fight human trafficking by donating funds, raising awareness, and praying. In September, the film was screened at The Rome International Film Festival in Rome, Georgia, the Midwest Christian-Inspirational Indie Film Festival in Chicago, Illinois, and the Atlanta International Documentary Film Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. "Nefarious" was screened at Oaxaca FilmFest two months later. The Rose Marine Theater in Fort Worth, Texas hosted a screening in celebration of Human Rights Day in December. Other screenings have taken place in South Korea, Hong Kong, Bermuda, and Canada. The Hong Kong premiere was attended by such people as Clement Cheng, Lori Chow, Cathy Leung, Pamela Peck, Nancy Sit, and Grace Wong, and the subsequent three weeks of screenings were all sold out. In May 2013, Katarina MacLeod, a former sex slave, spoke at a screening in Peterborough, Ontario hosted by Canadian Baptist Women of Ontario and Quebec. Laila Mickelwait, Exodus Cry's Director of Awareness and Prevention, screened the film in several countries in an attempt to persuade governments to make laws similar to Sweden's "Sex Purchase Act", which criminalizes the purchasing rather than the selling of sex. Because Sweden now has the lowest human trafficking rate in the European Union, Mickelwait argued that such laws decrease the demand for commercial sex and effectively combat related organized crime. At some screenings, Exodus Cry solicited funds for the halfway houses it runs in Moldova called LightHouses, where victims of sex trafficking are given help.
In "News Weekly", Babette Francis called "Nefarious" a "ground-breaking documentary". Tiffany Owens of "World", a Christian magazine, praised the film, describing its storytelling as compelling and vivid. Jamie Rake of "The Phantom Tollbooth" called the film "an engrossing, sometimes appropriately gross, exposé [that] sounds a clarion cry against … modern slavery". Rake praises the re-enactments for being appropriately ominous, and for demonstrating the dehumanization and abuse that characterize sexual trafficking. He suggests that the film is a modern version of "This Is the Life", a Christian television series that dealt with social issues, and that, if Nolot applied for a Motion Picture Association of America film rating, it would be given a PG-13 rating. Dan Preston of "Godculture Magazine" called the film "a hands-on, grimy, honest, explorative piece of journalism". Preston praised Nolot's writing and directing. Jennifer Cheng of the "South China Morning Post" called the film "unnerving" and wrote that it "offers a glimpse into how organized crime, abuse, greed, lust and humiliation intertwine to make human trafficking possible."
Appearing in "", Orvus (voiced by Charles Martinet) is the unique Zoni who created the Great Clock as its original Caretaker and is also Clank's "father", as he is responsible for Clank's possession of a soul. After he is captured by Dr. Nefarious, Orvus teleports to somewhere unknown, and Clank is brought to the Great Clock by the Zoni to become its new Caretaker in his absence. As Clank is trained by the Clock's Junior Caretaker Sigmund (another robot that Orvus possibly granted a soul to) in his new duties, Orvus communicates with him through a series of simulated programs stored in his memory banks.
Ratchet, Clank and a disguised Qwark infiltrate the Nefarious Space Station and destroy the armada so that Nefarious doesn't reach the Clock, only to be cornered by Nefarious himself, who reveals that he plans on making a perfect universe where villains rule supreme. Nefarious launches Ratchet and Clank to the barren planet Morklon so that they don't interfere with his plans. With help from Sigmund, Ratchet and Clank use a time portal to secure a working ship that helps them return to the Nefarious Space Station. Ratchet and Clank fight and seemingly kill Nefarious, before escaping with the help of Alister just as his malfunctioning ship destroys the space station.
"Nefarious" explores how sex trafficking differs from country to country, and suggests that all the victims are both psychologically and emotionally enslaved. One of the initial assertions in the film is that slavery has not been abolished but is increasing, and that half of this slavery is sexual in nature. "Nefarious" identifies political corruption and difficult socioeconomic situations as elements that prevent sex slaves from escaping exploitation, and suggests that most victims do not survive for more than seven years after initially being trafficked. While the violent acquisition of sex slaves depicted in the first sequence of the film does occur in reality, Jimmy Stewart of "Charisma" wrote that most girls who are sexually trafficked in Europe are recruited through a fraudulent offer of employment and an improved lifestyle overseas, neither of which ultimately materializes in the new country.
The Merchants of Souls is a 2001 science fiction novel by John Barnes and the third book in the "Thousand Cultures" series.
The film includes an interview with a man referring to himself as "Vlad", who formerly trafficked in humans and drugs in Europe for eleven years. Vlad explains that traffickers control their victims by drugging them, physically abusing them, or threatening to abuse them. He claims that traffickers consider themselves most successful when the exploited girls start responding immediately to shouted, one-word commands. Vlad describes beating girls who tried to run away and says that he felt little remorse after such incidents; the large sums of money involved made him indifferent to the girls' fate. Vlad surmises that the reason global sex trafficking has expanded is that girls can be sold for sex repeatedly, while drugs can only be sold once. When asked how sex trafficking can function on an international scale, Vlad states that the two major contributory factors are organized crime and political corruption.
Another interview features an Amsterdam pimp, "Slim", who owns a business allowing passers-by to view scantily clad girls in a display window; they can have sex with them on a mattress in a back room. He initially says that the display window women are not in any danger while with a client in the back room, but later clarifies that the girls should "keep a hand close to the panic button" located on the wall. When asked by Nolot if these activities are financed by organized crime, Slim hesitates, then says no.
"Nefarious" asserts that there is a link between the international sex industry and legal prostitution in the Western world, and that those who create the demand for forced prostitution around the world are of a wide variety of ages and are often considered respectable. The film contrasts the secretiveness and brutality of the sex industry in Eastern Europe with the openness of public prostitution in the Netherlands. "Nefarious" suggests that sex trafficking in Southeast Asia is fuelled largely by the complicity of the victims' parents, with many in Cambodia grooming and then knowingly selling their daughters into prostitution to pay for luxury goods. The film asserts that 10% of the population of Moldova has been sexually trafficked. "Nefarious" contrasts Las Vegas prostitutes with victims of sex trafficking in Europe, depicting the former as drawn into the sex industry by dreams of a glamorous lifestyle, and the latter as made vulnerable by child abandonment and orphanages.
"Nefarious" was written, directed, produced and narrated by Benjamin Nolot, founder and president of Exodus Cry, the film's distributor. Nolot, who travelled to 19 countries to collect the film's content, said that the purpose of the film is "to draw people's attention to the issue, but also to inspire them in terms of what they can be doing … to take a stand against this injustice." The film was officially released on July 27, 2011, with individual grassroots screenings also taking place. Laila Mickelwait, Exodus Cry's director of awareness and prevention, screened the film in several countries in an attempt to persuade governments to make laws similar to Sweden's "Sex Purchase Act", which criminalizes the purchasing rather than the selling of sex. The film was released on home video on May 1, 2012.
Both Jim Uttley of "Indian Life Newspaper" and Pastor Jamie Bagley of "The News of Cumberland County" called "Nefarious" "hard-hitting". Uttley further asserted that "Nefarious" "is not an easy film to watch because it deals with a subject that most of us would rather ignore", and he went on to highly recommend the film. Jimmy Stewart of "Charisma" reported that the film gives a human face to trafficking statistics and instils a desire in the viewer to put an end to such criminal activity. Ted Baehr of "Movieguide", a Christian magazine, called the film "a powerful, compelling and transformational documentary about human trafficking and sex slavery" and wrote that it was amazing that the film covered an inherently sexual topic both honestly and without nudity. Baehr praised the cinematography, editing, and filmmaking, but criticized some portions of the film as being repetitive and uncompelling. The "Movieguide" review ends by comparing the film's opposition to modern slavery to the death of Saint Telemachus, which put an end to gladiatorial games in ancient Rome. Erica Yunghans of "Star News Daily" called the film "controversial".
"Nefarious" covers human trafficking in the United States, Western and Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia. Interviews are interspersed with re-enactments. The film opens with a re-enactment of a girl being kidnapped by organized criminals. She is confined with other girls in a dark room, lit by a flickering lightbulb. Men order the girls to remove their clothes, and then examine them and shout commands and threats at them, causing them to cry from fear. One girl is dragged into another room. A victim of ordeals such as these, speaking in voiceover, explains that, in this situation, girls are often taken into a separate room to have their sexual performance tested. Identifying these events as taking place near Belgrade, Serbia, the film then tracks the fictional girls through Croatia to Amsterdam's red-light district De Wallen, and to sex markets in Berlin and Las Vegas. The film states that this slavery goes unnoticed in cities where prostitution is legal. Slaves are depicted in confinement, at their places of work, and as they are sold. Many of the girls are orphans, and all are either kidnapped or tricked into forced prostitution. Traffickers in the film use hard drugs, brainwashing and sexual and physical abuse to keep the girls under control.
Most of what is known about Doctor Nefarious' past comes from the much less-than-reliable Qwark comics featured in "". Originally an organic humanoid with an abnormally-large head, Dr. Nefarious first appeared when he created an army of Amoeboids to infest Blackwater City and destroy all life. After fending off the Amoeboids, Captain Qwark traced Nefarious to a robot factory on planet Magmos and cornered the villain. Upon meeting him, Qwark recognized Nefarious as one of the students he bullied and humiliated in high school. As Qwark tried to give him a wedgie "for old times' sake", Nefarious fell off his catwalk and crashed into the machinery below, which ultimately led to his transformation into a robot. The new Nefarious soon after unleashed a horde of robotic insects on Metropolis to get revenge on Qwark, who confronted and defeated him again, leaving the villain as a disembodied head which Qwark dumps in a trash can. Qwark was subsequently knocked out by Nefarious' butler Lawrence and taken to the former's ice planet lab. Qwark managed to escape while Nefarious began planning his vendetta after he was repaired; however, the repairs left Nefarious with a habit of malfunctioning in times of extreme stress (during which episodes he freezes up and receives random radio signals of a soap opera in his head).
On Zanifar, Ratchet uses a time portal created by Sigmund to travel back in time two years earlier and rescue Orvus, who is being tortured by Nefarious. Orvus vanishes into thin air, but not before warning Nefarious that the Clock is not to be used as a time machine. Shortly after returning to the present, Ratchet learns that Alister has been kidnapped by Vorselon, who forces Ratchet to come and save him. Although initially angry that Ratchet chose to save him rather than the Clock, Alister assures Ratchet that using the Clock is worth the risk. Clank and Sigmund both open the door to the Orvus Chamber, but are immobilized by Lawrence, who kidnaps Clank and brings him to Nefarious. Ratchet and Alister fly to Vapedia, where they defeat the local Valkyries and rescue Clank. Despite wanting to stop Nefarious with the help of the Lombaxes, Ratchet gives up on finding them after Clank warns that using the Clock as a time machine is too risky, even for the universe. An upset Alister then leaves shortly afterwards.
To set up payments by Direct Debit, the payer must complete a Direct Debit Instruction to the merchant. This instruction contains bank-approved wording that makes it clear the payer is setting up an ongoing authority for the merchant to debit their account. The interface for completing the Direct Debit Instruction is controlled by the merchant, who then sends the data from the form to the customer's bank, via Bacs.
Soul Merchant is an album recorded by organist Sam Lazar and released on the Argo label.
Nefarious: Merchant of Souls is a 2011 American documentary film about modern human trafficking, specifically sexual slavery. Presented from a Christian worldview, "Nefarious" covers human trafficking in the United States, Western and Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia, alternating interviews with re-enactments. Victims of trafficking talk about having been the objects of physical abuse and attempted murder. Several former prostitutes talk about their conversion to Christianity, escape from sexual oppression, and subsequent education or marriage. The film ends with the assertion that only Jesus can completely heal people from the horrors of sexual slavery.