Ghosts (2006)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Nick Broomfield

Writers:

Nick Broomfield (written by) and
Jez Lewis (written by) ...

Release Date:

12 January 2007 (UK)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama

Tagline:

Morecambe Bay, February 5th 2004, 23 lives, 23 souls

Plot:

A young Chinese girl is smuggled into the UK so she can support her son and family in China. |

Plot Keywords:

Based On True Story

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Ai Qin Lin	...	Ai Qin
Zhan Yu	...	Mr. Lin
Zhe Wei	...	Xiao Li
Man Qin Wei	...	Chio
Yong Aing Zhai	...	Zhai (as Wen Buo Zhai)
Devi Zhu	...	Bai
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rhys Bond	...	Police Officer
Kay Briar Fox	...	Angry Neighbour's Wife
Colin Brown	...	British Cockle-Picker
Dave Bryan	...	People Smuggler in Calais
Kan Jin Chen	...	Ai Qin's Mother
Ping Chen	...	Snakehead in China / UK
Graca Costa	...	Employment Agency Assistant
Lorraine Day	...	Angry Woman in Agency
Andrew Dodd	...	British Cockle-Picker
Shang Falin	...	Ai Qin's Father
Shalin Gallagher	...	Robert
Roger Gray	...	Police Officer
Graham Harris	...	Police Officer
Marc Hoeferlin	...	People Smuggler in Calais
Dafydd Hughes	...	British Cockle-Picker
Stewart Jones	...	British Cockle-Picker
Darren Kasselves	...	British Cockle-Picker
Ang Sheng Lin	...	Baby Bebe
Qin Rong Lin	...	Ai Qin's Brother
Sean Lin	...	Ai Qin's Son
Tao Li	...	Chinese Cockle-Picker
Xiang Li	...	Smuggled Chinese Immigrant
Raquel Marques	...	Employment Agency Assistant
Vikki McDonald	...	British Cockle-Picker
Paul Ovenden	...	Employment Agency Manager
Paul Plausin	...	Police Officer
Paul Andrew Richardson	...	British Cockle-Picker
Terry Sergeant	...	British Cockle-Picker
Mark Thomas	...	British Cockle-Picker
Jiannan Tian	...	Smuggled Chinese Immigrant
Paul Wadsworth	...	Angry Neighbour
Shu Ping Wang	...	Snakehead in UK
Lana Westfold	...	Farm Minibus Driver
Michael Whitehead	...	British Cockle-Picker
Ruby Wood	...	Girl in Duck Factory
Li Qing Yang	...	Snakehead in UK

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

UK

Language:

Mandarin | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

Ireland:15A | UK:15 | Singapore:M18 | Singapore:NC-16 (edited version)

Company:

Channel 4 Television Corporation

Trivia:

Had no scripted dialog.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Shooting 'Ghosts' (2006)

Excellent

The title of Nick Broomfield's new film is deliberately ambiguous; ghosts being the disparaging term the Chinese use to describe white westerners and (possibly) a reference to the invisibility of poorly paid, unprotected non-British workers who work in slave conditions in the food industry.

Three years ago such workers made the news, briefly, when 23 illegal Chinese immigrants drowned in Morecambe Bay while digging for cockles late one evening. As the waters rose around them, they rang their families to say goodbye, unaware they'd have been better off ringing 999.

Their deaths inspired the notorious Broomfield to make a film in which he re-enacts the events leading up to the disaster. In this he is assisted by a cast of amateurs, many of whom are themselves illegal immigrants, and the film's star Ai Qi Lin, a non-professional, whom we follow through various low-skilled jobs in the food industry in a bid to pay back the $25,000 she borrowed from 'Snakeheads' to smuggle her into the country.

There are times when she must wonder why she bothered, forced as she is to live in a two-bedroom house with 11 other Chinese immigrants, all of whom are sworn at and spat on by their neighbours. The landlord is no better: he overcharges them.

And yet, for all that., despite the horrific ending, Ghosts isn't entirely bereft of hope. After all, if nothing else, its impact is such that it should force us all to question our own appetite for cheap food and embarrass supermarkets into altering the way their products are produced.