For me at least, there are some films where the subject is so huge, so challenging, so moving, that it kind of takes over how you feel about the film. Everything else is relegated to the irrelevant. 'Schindler's List' is a good example. You didn't come out of the cinema saying, 'Wow, so and so's characterisation was good' or 'their acting was great'. Instead you were just kind of dumbstruck by the enormity of what had been portrayed.
'Ghosts' is a bit like that. OK, so the death of 23 immigrant workers in Morecombe Bay in 2004 isn't on the same level as the Holocaust, but it still sticks a painful knife into your conscience, especially since this isn't about history, it's about what you bought at the supermarker earlier today. I'm not sure how the acting or cinematography held up - actually I guess it was pretty good - but I know I've been made to think about something in a new way. I love the cinema when it does that.
So we follow the life of Ai Qin, a mother struggling to bring up her young child who decides to survive she must find work somewhere else. And that somewhere else turns out to be Norfolk, preparing meat and picking vegetable for Sainsburys, ASDA and Tesco. Abused by everyone in sight, financially and emotionally, her pain seeps out of this film and makes you feel very uncomfortable watching. No one gets off the hook: the chinese boss who 'runs' her, the neighbours who's racist taunts sound very familiar this week, the supermarkets who depend on her low wages and ourselves, the consumer who benefits with cheap food.
The film takes us on as Ai Qin head north where there's talk of better money picking cockles in Morecombe Bay. These scenes are terrifying, not just the eventual tragedy when so many drowned, but the abuse by the existing cockle-pickers who are angry about outsiders impinging on their turf.
As it ends, you're struck by the strange experience of seeing something that you haven't really seen before - this underworld of migrant workers that actually numbers millions - and its connection to you and your life.
There's a fund to help the families of the vistims of the Morecombe Bay tragedy. It's a start, but I suspect this is a kick for me to think more deeply about where I spend my money and how I can offset the injustice of cheap food.
