SEX: MY BRITISH JOB

London is home to an estimated 2,000 brothels, and 80 percent of the prostitutes are foreigners, most of them illegal. This film was shot quite literally from the viewpoint of undercover reporter Hsiao Hung Pai, who worked illegally as a cleaner in a claustrophobic brothel for several weeks and used spy camera glasses to record the goings on there – while coming under increasing pressure to prostitute herself.

This intensely subjective approach means the film offers unusually personal insight into what drives undocumented Asian immigrants to become prostitutes, into the inhuman conditions in which they live, and especially into how inexperienced women are drawn into the world of the brothel. Comments such as "A blow job without a condom is normal" and "You will eventually lose your self-esteem" stand in stark contrast to the sugary-sweet Chinese feel-good music on the soundtrack.

The film consists predominantly of diary-like reports accompanied by Hsiao’s voiceover, conversations with prostitutes and pimps in the brothel, and scenes of the women preparing to receive their clients, who appear and disappear in the stairwell. In intermezzos we see Hsiao handing over rushes to director Nick Broomfield, often seated in a car where they briefly discuss the state of affairs.