The Dark Side of Irregular Migration to the United Kingdom in the Film Dirty Pretty Things

The article proposes an interpretation of the 2002 film, Dirty Pretty Things, by British filmmaker Stephen Frears, understanding it as a political stand on global migratory movements and, in particular, the English migration policy of the early 21st century. The film depicts undocumented migrants barely surviving in London through precarious, temporary jobs and back-breaking workdays who involuntarily engage in the international trafficking of human organs and forged passports. The methodology of film analysis combines Marc Ferro's contextualist approach, which invites us to explore the dialogues of the film with the social world, with the semiotic proposal of Pierre Sorlin, with the help of which we interpret the signs and metaphors that build the internal meanings of the film narrative.