Dirty Pretty Things

Okwe, a Nigerian doctor working in London without papers, drives a cab by day and mans a hotel desk by night. One night he clears a blocked toilet and finds a human heart. There is an organ trade running under the hotel. Senay, a Turkish asylum seeker, is pulled into it too. Stephen Frears directed, from a screenplay by Steven Knight. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Okwe and Audrey Tautou plays Senay. The resolution comes out of the same trade: the two of them drug the man running the operation and take his kidney, and that is how they find the money to get away. The New Yorker described it as a social thriller: creepy, tightly knit, and revealing more about the lives of immigrants in London on the fly than the most scrupulously earnest documentary. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 94 percent from 143 reviews, the consensus calling it an illuminating and nuanced film about the exploitation of undocumented immigrants. It was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar. In 2003 it was named Best British Independent Film and Ejiofor won Best Actor at the same ceremony. On a 10 million dollar budget it grossed 13.9 million worldwide. Who it is for: viewers who like social thrillers and films about invisible labour. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a reassuring ending. The characters get out and the system stays where it is.