A romance on illegal immigrants

In his 2002 film Dirty Pretty Things, British film director Stephen Frears paints a wonderful colourful picture of survival for a small group of illegal immigrants in London.

In the lead is Okwe (played superbly by Chiwetel Ejiofor), a Nigerian with a past. His story unfolds slowly over the entire film, but right from the beginning we realise that Okwe is a man of honesty and integrity... and education. Although a doctor by profession, he makes a living as a part-time taxi driver and as a night receptionist at a mid-level hotel, The Baltic.

In fact, it is The Baltic on which Dirty Pretty Things is centred. The hotel also offers work to Senay (played by the lovely Audrey Tautou), a young and somewhat naive Turkish woman who dreams of going to America to join her cousin’s restaurant there. As a member of The Baltic’s housekeeping staff on the morning shift, Senay rents out her couch in her tiny flat to Okwe during the day.

For company, Okwe and Senay have a colourful menagerie of characters on the side: Juan – the hotel’s supervisor (played by Sergi López), appropriately called ‘Sneaky’ for his suspicious dealings; Ivan – an opportunist East European doorman (played by Zlatko Buric); Juliette – a prostitute with a heart of gold (played by Sophie Okonedo); and Guo Yi – a philosophical Chinese morgue attendant (played by Benedict Wong) who is Okwe’s friend.

But, when British immigration officers raid Senay’s flat and attempt to catch her working without a work permit, life becomes difficult for both Senay and Okwe.

Matters are further complicated when Okwe uncovers a racket in the sale of kidneys run within The Baltic by his supervisor, Sneaky, in exchange for false passports for illegal immigrants. In turn, Sneaky finds out about Okwe’s Nigerian past (Okwe being a doctor and being charged with his wife’s murder) and blackmails Okwe into performing kidney operations for his personal gains.

This is where Dirty Pretty Things moves away from ordinary human drama and into the realm of a crime thriller... climaxing with Senay taking up Sneaky’s offer in exchange for her passport to America.

With Dirty Pretty Things, director Frears works on a tight script by writer Steven Knight. The dialogues are minimal, but within those words, the story is told rather well. Together, Frears and Knight present a London most of us know very little about. Beneath the bright lights of the big city is a life lived by people who would be best described as marginal: people who have little going for them except their instinct for survival and their hope for a better life.

And, Frears delivers on that promise. Dirty Pretty Things, Stephen Frear’s romance on illegal immigrants of London, is a film crafted to perfection. It shows us why life is still worth living no matter how adversely our immediate circumstances overwhelm us.