Director Ken Loach has premiered a movie about immigration in the UK at the Venice Film Festival.
Set in London, It's A Free World examines the exploitation of migrant workers in Britain and was written by Loach and Paul Laverty (who also co-wrote Loach's award-winning The Wind That Shakes The Barley).
The story focuses on two East End girls who start an illegal recruitment agency from their flat, and was also filmed in the Ukraine and Poland.
Brit filmmaker Loach said he hoped it would generate attention on the plight of immigrants - legal or otherwise - who have flocked to the country from eastern Europe in recent years.
"On the one hand people say the economy couldn't survive without the immigrant workforce. On the other, the right wing is saying, 'Get these people out of our country'. It's hypocrisy," he said.
Loach went on to criticise what he called British exploitation of cheap foreign labour: "We've allowed the working infrastructure of our country to disintegrate," he said. "Workers in our factories and supermarkets, in the agriculture and manufacturing industries, have no protection and no voice. We now have to think about [it] every time we shop in the supermarket for a packet of salad or strawberries, or whenever we employ a builder."
It's A Free World goes on limited release in Britain from September 13, and is also due to be screened on Channel 4 this autumn.