Ghosts

Stunning work.

Nick Broomfield returns a social documentary that rests between gritty factual based realism and humanitarian fiction, an expose where the footage’s findings are presented in a story.

And it’s all very real too. The resulting effect is an investigation into the cramped, miserable and degraded lives of Chinese immigrant workers in Britain, and the twenty-one workers who lost their lives at Morecambe Bay, picking cockles.

The narrative follows a captivating performance by Ai Qin Lin, as one of the economic migrants fleeing the poverty of home. We follow the desperate plight of the underclasses of China, aided by superb undercover documentary footage shot by Broomfield, which is raw, handheld and stripped of any lavishness.

An expose of the events surrounding the news story, this takes us painfully deeper into the unimaginable world of slave labour, at a time when thoughts on immigration need to be reconsidered. And with the opening and closing bay scenes, it’s hard to hide your terror and horror for these people. Stunning work.

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