The Thai seafood industry is a big deal. Anyone strolling the streets of Bangkok in search of fish taco could tell you that much. Wait. Is that what I meant? No matter. It’s big, like $9B/year big. And competitive big. And small margins big. And stealing citizens for slave labor big. Wait. What?! Yes, literally thousands of young men have been stolen from Thailand and live the rest of their entire wretched lives fishing up and down the waters of Indonesia at gunpoint.
Oh, they’re sleep-deprived, too. These poor guys never get a break from slavery; they’re actually given speed to stay up and work instead of sleep. They also never get to port; the fishing boats just meet up with the mother ship to transfer supplies. Hence, some of these men can go years without seeing land.
Modern slavery is beyond-the-pale ugly. I mean, we can try to distance ourselves from American slavery; some are better than others at it. But I think we can all agree: 1) It happened 2) It was wrong 3) It shouldn’t happen again. And yet, slavery is happening again. Ghost Fleet describes the men who have had their lives essentially forfeit. They “live” on the ships, never meeting friend, family, or pleasure again. They have become ghosts. Their champion is cancer survivor Patima Tungpuchayakul, a lawyer who has made it her mission in life to save whatever men she can from the ghost fate.
Ghost Fleet had a great beginning and a great ending and was completely listless in between. We learn a lot about Patima, but almost nothing about her quest other than she’s on one. Dudes, are you searching for boats? Are you searching for escapees? What tools are you using? What leads do you have? Dare I say, this looks like a fishing expedition. Not that the film didn’t realize it was getting dull and, hence, violated a few documentary rules: What is with the re-creation of torture? This guy here was stolen from home, hasn’t had a decent sleep in a decade, lost his fingers in a fishing “accident,” was on the lam from pirates and living alone in the dense jungle for years afterwards … are his words not enough here? You wish to stage this? That’s a different film.
Somewhere in the middle of the film, Ghost Fleet introduces a monk. Clearly not a Tibetan monk; we’re thousands of miles from Tibet or mountains for that matter, but you’ll recognize the look – orange robes, solemn faces, vows of piety and humility. This guy, however, is an embittered escapee and wishes nothing but ill will on his former captors. This gave me the biggest inner smile of the film. Just knowing that on the outside, a monk can be all at one-with-the-Earth-and-its-creatures-and-shit, but on the inside, the benevolent peace-lover can still be all, ”And you best not come to my ‘hood, or I’ma bust a Buddha up yo’ ass! Y’hear?!” gives the odd viewer like me an unusual sense of tranquility.
The big question for Americans watching this film is: could it happen here? Of course it could. Don’t kid yourself. All you need is somebody with enough power to abuse it and a justice system that looks the other way. We already have all that in spades, and if you don’t see it in the White House, you can at least see it in our border policy. While I cannot recommend the film, I think this is a topic every adult American should know about, because when you can’t account for somebody, this is one of the very possible results.
♪In Bangkok where I am from
There came a gang who sail the sea
And they stole me and some guys
Quite unfair, don’t you agree?
Now wish fish from dawn to dusk
And dusk to dawn and dusk again
Every time I need a rest,
They stuff my face with Ritalin
We all live in this tragedy marine
Tragedy marine, tragedy marine
We all “live” in the nautical obscene
Beyond the sea of green, I’m just a fish machine♫
Not Rated, 90 Minutes
Director: Shannon Service, Jeffrey Waldron
Writer: Who is the muse of awful?
Genre: Piracy
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Social Justice Warriors
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: CEOs
♪ Parody Inspired by “Yellow Submarine”
