Dirty Pretty Things
Dirty Pretty Things- directed by Stephen Frears
- "'Dirty Pretty Things' is a must for anyone who enjoys thrillers and has an interest in immigration and asylum issues..."
- Amazon.co.uk review »
Review posted on 22 February 2006 by Alice Curteis, World-wise reviewer
Dirty Pretty Things is a must for anyone who enjoys thrillers and has an interest in immigration and asylum issues.
Pietter Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a Nigerian doctor who was framed for murder at home and escaped to London where he has to survive as an illegal alien and finds work as a minicab driver and a hotel night porter.
He discovers a human heart in a hotel bedroom and realizes that the place is being used in a murky trade in human organs from third world donors.
It would be safer for him to keep his head down but he isn't the kind of person who could do this and, together with a Turkish chambermaid (Audrey Tautou - star of Amélie), a prostitute and a Chinese mortuary technician, he gets to the bottom of the case and exacts satisfying revenge on one of the people who has made his life as an exploited illegal worker so difficult.
Unsympathetic immigration officials are unsympathetically portrayed as just one aspect of the grim picture of the life of an illegal immigrant. But above all Dirty Pretty Things tells a gripping story and is worth watching for its sheer entertainment value.