It was quite an interesting night on August 30 for Channel 4, with two programmes connected by the same theme of modern day slavery in Britain: one a documentary and the other a TV movie baring Mark Kermode’s favourite tagline, "inspired by real events". In a perfect world Dispatches: Britain's Secret Slaves and I Am Slave would bring about a change in some of the ridiculous laws in Britain but will hopefully at least spark a bit of debate.
Chances are both won’t get the audience they deserve, considering they were shown on a Bank Holiday and it’s not the usual Bond fare people want but they are excellent representations of how great television can tackle important issues. Usually I try to inject a bit of humour, or attempted anyway, into some of these reviews but given the serious of the subjects it would just be stupid and inappropriate. If you want that sort of thing go read Ally Ross.
Dispatches: Britain’s Secret Slaves
First up was Dispatches: Britain’s Secret Slaves, a shocking investigation into how foreign domestic workers are forced to take jobs for pennies and treated in appalling ways by their employers, in some cases trafficked into the country at a young age or having their passports held at ransom. Due to the extreme nature of the allegations, including physical and sexual abuse, many of the women interviewed are anonymous for their own protection.
Charities that help these workers add that a great deal of the maids are exploited by that classic public hate figure; rich people. According to some of the women featured their employers would spend an extravagant amount of money on overpriced tat yet can’t cough up a decent salary, if any.
While much of the material is based on personal statements and stories, talking heads basically, there’s a lot of “she claims” being thrown about but it does give way to some great confrontations between representatives of the women and the former employers. Overall the whole thing just makes you angry and wish that more names would be shamed for their disgraceful behaviour, especially the foreign diplomats hinted at.
I Am Slave
I Am Slave takes a dramatic observation of the same situation with the real story of Malia (Wunmi Mosaku), who was taken from her Nuba village at a young age and sold into slavery to work for nothing and in horrible conditions at the homes of rich families. The story focuses mainly on her time as a housemaid for a British family, linking together very well with the testimonies and case studies from the previous hour in Dispatches.
I Am Slave was perhaps a little hard to follow at first with the constant shifting of chronology but credit to the filmmakers for not dumbing down. It did contain some harrowing scenes where Malia is beaten for the tiniest offense that were understandably hard to watch and it was directed with a focus on darkness and shadows, creating the image of loneliness.
In a similar way to The Pursuit of Happyness it features a lead character that is constantly being dragged further and further down, in this case to the point of self harm. When the eventual and inevitable fleeing moment does occur it’s perhaps not as big as it could have been and the short emotional pay off doesn’t really make up for all the abuse. That aside, it did feature some brilliant acting from Mosaku in a largely silent portrayal.
Steven Cookson - Steven Cookson is a writer and attempted journalist based in Howden. Originally from Chester, that Hollyoaks place in North-West of ...
