Bao and Tien are Vietnamese siblings illegally enslaved in a cannabis farm on the outskirts of a British town. Bao oversees the farm’s daily operations and hopes for promotion; Tien hopes to break free and start her own legitimate business.

When Tien is taken away after falling and breaking her leg, Bao begins to fear for her life. He escapes captivity and enlists the help of Hanh, a wealthier Vietnamese student enrolled at the local university.

Hanh’s student status depends on their enslavement; they work towards her university costs in the United Kingdom and, back in Vietnam, Hanh’s parents pay Bao’s family a subsistence. Now they must work together in order to find Tien and close the payment cycle without alarming British authorities. All the while they are hunted by modern slavers, hell-bent on recapturing their property and eliminating any connections to their crimes.

At current estimation, 3.000 adolescent slaves tend to cannabis farms across the United Kingdom, coaxed and trafficked from Vietnam in the hope of providing for their families. Exploited for profit, their produce accounts for over 95% of the cannabis market. This money is exchanged and laundered through legitimate fronts, including the British education system.

It is this clash of contrasting worlds that drew me to this subject (supply/demand, East/West, rich/poor, free/enslaved) as well as the precarious dilemma of all involved. Bao and Tien are caught between feeding their family or fleeing to freedom, whilst unable to turn to the authorities for fear of incarceration or deportation.

With this modern update of the runaway slave story, I intend to create a visceral film that delves into the fraught realities behind sensationalist and dehumanising headlines. Employing an objective and naturalistic aesthetic, I hope to compassionately portray this morally complex system.