The Day

It's quite astonishing that only a decade ago, people were working in the almost tropical temperatures of the heel of Italy for as little as 2 Euros an hour. This film now quite poignantly proceeds to show us a little of the basic conditions endured by a group of women - one of whose number we know has already perished from "heart failure", as they disembark their coach and set about doing a shift that they know will exhaust them whilst their supervisor relaxes in his garden chair. These are Italian citizens, not desperate migrants hiding from the authorities and they even have pay slips for their meagre earnings to prove it. They have no choice. There are no alternatives and they need the money. It's the dialogue that does all the work here, and it's very simplicity is potent to watch.