"We
drive your taxis, make your beds, and suck your cocks," according
to Dr. Okwe (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) in Dirty
Pretty Things, commenting on the fate of
illegal aliens in London. A physician who left Nigeria
to avoid arrest and prosecution for a murder that he did
not commit, Okwe has two jobs and hopes that he will remain
afloat as an illegal alien. In the daytime, he drives a
taxi, hawking at the airport for customers who have been
stood up by those who promised to pick them up; at night,
he is a porter at the Hotel Baltic. When the film begins,
the taxi dispatcher has gonorrhea and asks Okwe to get
some medicine. One of Okwe's friends, Gui Yi (played by
Benedict Wong), is able to supply the medicine. A Turkish
friend, Sinay (played by Audrey Tautou), is also an illegal
alien. In love with him, she also has two jobs--as a seamstress
at a sweatshop whose owner demands to be serviced daily
and as a maid at the Hotel Baltic. The hotel is in part
a front for illegal activities. A prostitute regularly
entertains clients, but not in the Chichester Suite. That
room is reserved for illegal aliens who are willing to
exchange a kidney for a passport, a racket run by a hotel
employee, Sneaky (played by Sergi Lopez), that greatly
displeases Okwe. Sneaky points out that "Strangers
come to hotels to do dirty things; in the morning it's
our job to make things pretty again." The story comes
to a head (pardon the pun) one day when Sinay decides to
bite rather than suck. She then races across town to Okwe
for protection. He, in turn, secures temporary lodging
at Gui Yi's place of work, a mortuary. Since she cannot
bear sleeping in the same facility with dead people, she
goes to the hotel, and consents to have her kidney harvested
so that she can get a passport to join her sister in New
York. Sneaky, of course, also takes advantage by forcing
her to have sex, in the process finding out that she is
a virgin. When Okwe finds out what Sinay wants, he tells
Sneaky that he will perform the operation so that she will
not die due to unsanitary conditions. His decision sets
up a scene in which members of the audience will clap,
as justice is finally served. Directed by Stephen Frears, Dirty
Pretty Things is an exposé of what
illegal aliens, desperate to save their lives, face in
more cities than London. Accordingly, the Political Film
Society has nominated Dirty Pretty Things as
best film exposé and best film on human rights of
2003. MH
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