Cinema - Ghosts

This month marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Britain. Which has rightfully led to a flurry of publicity about the fact that there is plenty still going on in the country. This varies from enforced prostitution to the exploitation of illegal immigrants for agricultural, domestic and other forms of labour. Ghosts is a work of cinema vérité by documentary-maker Nick Broomfield, looking at the events that led up to the Morecambe Bay tragedy, in which 23 illegal Chinese immigrants drowned while harvesting cockles on the inter-tidal mudflats in February 2004.

The film uses genuine Chinese immigrants as its main actors, and tells the story of one in particular, Ai Qin, a single mother who raised the money to pay a gang over £12,000 to transport her illegally to Britain, only to find once she got there that she had no option but to do long hours at back-breaking jobs for a pittance, whilst being ripped off by everybody from her landlords to the workers in the employment agency. Towards the end of the film she is faced with a difficult choice - should she go and work in a massage parlour in London, or join one of the cockle-picking gangs in Lancashire? Broomfield based the script of the film on the testimonies of his actors: while their inexperience in their new role inevitably shows, this powerful piece makes you angry at the slave gangs, the government, and yourself, for ever buying cheap exploitative tat in the supermarkets. DL