Rent Ghosts (2006)

Invisible Lives - Ghosts review by Steve

This was new direction for Nick Broomfield who had achieved some minor celebrity as a provocateur, making controversial documentaries. It's a reconstruction of the real life deaths of 23 Chinese illegal immigrants at Morecambe Bay in 2004, trapped by the tide as they scraped up cockles in the dark.

The victims are conveyed to their deaths by a chain of events which begins with the criminal gangs in China and continues in the UK with administrative corruption and then the local racist thugs who assault them. And then completed by their isolated, horrific drowning. Clearly this is very difficult to watch.

The drama is quite flat because this is reportage; dreadful, but raw and without much insight or finesse, maybe because it was improvised by a non-pro cast. But the catastrophe is so appalling the film becomes deeply moving anyway. And upsetting. The ciné-vérité approach makes it seem personal.

In addition, Broomfield explores the shabby practices of the food industry, particularly the major supermarkets; he exposes the connection between their tragic fate and the food in our mouths. This is a political film perhaps influenced by Ken Loach, and Broomfield delivers a shocking, shaming polemic.