Ghosts

To ensure her son's future, Ai Qin leaves the Chinese provinces to seek work in Britain. She ends up with Mr Lin, who houses illegal immigrants in overcrowded rooms for extortionate prices and tries to tempt her into prostitution. Hovering between homesickness and despair, she works long hours in the food industry. After a hard day's work in an onion field, Ai Qin goes to a store and realises that she cannot even afford the spring onions she dug herself. Finally, Mr Lin's house is raided, and the group travels north, hoping to make better money collecting cockles. When the locals chase them away, it is the overture to the disaster that took place on 5 February 2004 in the British town of Morecambe Bay. Director Nick Broomfield ( Kurt & Courtney, Biggie and Tupac) explores the grey area between fact and fiction with this dramatised reconstruction in which former illegal immigrants play all the roles.

Shot so sparely, and with agonisingly aesthetic dexterity. I am awed by the accomplishment.

The Independent