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Andrews reviews "Dirty Pretty Things" directed by Stephen Frears.

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Many immigrants now coming to Western Europe, particularly to the UK, are from Eastern Europe, as a direct consequence of the collapse of the former Soviet Union. But a good number still comes from Sub-Saharan Africa and they often do the jobs that many native Britons don't want to do.

They work as farm labourers, hospital porters and mini-cab drivers. They cook, clean homes and serve in restaurants. They do this while at the same time trying to support their families back home.

Stephen Frears' latest film tells the story of one such refugee in the UK, a Nigerian doctor fleeing political persecution in his country. Okwe's story is characteristic of many others - the nameless, faceless individuals who live lives of quiet desperation.

Okwe has left Nigeria after a disagreement with a hospital superior where he refuses a request to fake an autopsy. The refusal has tragic consequences: his home is firebombed and his wife is murdered.

Fleeing for his life, he now lives a kind of shadow existence where he never sleeps but works two jobs - one as a porter and the other as a mini-cab driver, and all the while haunted by the fact that he has been forced to leave his young daughter behind.

At the hotel where he works, Okwe meets Senay - a young Turkish woman employed as a cleaner. Together, they make a discovery of human organs in one of the hotel rooms, which not only threatens their precarious existence in the country but also could ultimately cost them their lives.

Steven Knight, who wrote the film, explains: "When I originally started writing it, the story was a novel. Then I decided to use reality The story is at a hotel, the porter is Nigerian and the chambermaid Turkish. We actually do see it."

The irony of Dirty Pretty Things is that the characters depicted are people whom most Britons encounter on a daily basis, whether it is in a hospital or hotel, or the mini-cab industry. Their work is often taken for granted.

One of the horrors that the film explores is the illegal sale of human organs, taken from desperate people by doctors, who themselves are illegal immigrants. The film beautifully captures the parallel world that these characters inhabit- a world in which, as the author points out, "people are so poor that they have to sell parts of themselves".

To research this part for the film, Chiwete Ejiofor spoke to his parents who originate from Nigeria. "Because of my own family history, it was easy to understand," Ejiofor says. For the French actress, Audrey Tautou, who starred in last year's box-office smash, Amelie, the task was much harder. Having no close relatives who had encountered similar experiences, she chose to travel to London's Turkish district. "I went to Dalston to meet some Turkish women and heard their stories."

Stephen Frears points out: "The main themes of the film are isolation and survival instincts. Most characters are in some ways totally isolated. They are isolated as people, isolated in terms of circumstances. In Okwe's case, he is an illegal immigrant and ignored by the indigenous population. He is also isolated because he is pretending to be something that he is not."

The film also features a tender love story between Okwe and Senay who gradually turn to each other for emotional support. Ejiofor says of their relationship: "In many ways, Okwe is totally blown away by Senay. There is a possibility that he really didn't think people could be like her and he is so charmed by her that it renders him defenceless against her. I don't think he has a choice in that matter, he will always protect and defend her."

Although Dirty Pretty Things presents a bleak twilight world of cruel exploitation, it is not one devoid of hope.

Perhaps one of the most inspiring aspects of the film is the solidarity that exists between the various characters despite their cultural and religious differences. It is this desire to help and support each other that provides the film's only ray of light. Ultimately though Dirty Pretty Things highlights a dark nether world of desperation, a world that no one should be forced to inhabit.