The Stephen Frears's film, "Dirty Pretty Things", is a fictional tale that opens one's eyes to aspects of the real world that we never see. The artistic starting point of the film appears to be a genuine outrage over the conditions experienced by the most vulnerable and oppressed layers of society, the often faceless individuals who do the work we find ourselves 'above' doing for ourselves: cab drivers, prostitutes, hotel workers, illegal and 'undocumented' immigrants.
With the main character and many of the supporting roles playing illegal immigrants, the movie sheds light on levels of society that many of us are too naive to acknowledge. The quests of Okwe and Senay epitomize (to some extent) the ordeals faced by thousands of individuals every year seeking the fairytale life that, supposedly, can only be found living in the West. In the United States alone, it is estimated that there are currently as many as 10 million undocumented foreign workers.
Stephen Frears in Sweden promoting his movie "Dang...
Illegal Immigration
United StatesIn many cases, these workers' attempts at a better life involve placing themselves in the hands of 'people smugglers', and unfortunately, for a significant number this gamble proves fatal. Those that arrive in one piece face a bitter struggle to maintain their precarious and vulnerable position in their new society, cautiously living beneath the reaches of the law. The Frears flick shows what would appear to be genuine sympathy for these oppressed levels of the working class, and Dirty Pretty Things plays out an entertaining sequence of events in the lives of a number of characters as they struggle to maintain their existence as refugees and undocumented workers in London.
The motion picture also helps us in understanding more than one exemplification of literal commodification of the human body, a topic that has been brought up in several prior classes...