Cotton100% review – how forced labour paid the price of Uzbekistan’s ‘white gold’
Two brave women stand up for human rights as hordes of Uzbeks are dragged from their workplaces to pick state cotton, in this compelling documentary exposing farming practices only just outlawed
As a child growing up in Uzbekistan, film-maker Michael Borodin spent weeks at a time in the fields picking cotton when he should have been in class. The country is the world’s sixth-largest cotton producer; two million Uzbeks are involved in the production of “white gold”. Until recently, the state still had a monopoly on the industry and every year, doctors, teachers and other government workers – as well as schoolkids – were frogmarched to the fields at harvest time.
Last year, a UN agency reported that forced labour for cotton picking had been finally abolished in Uzbekistan. This documentary, filmed before that report was published, follows two women involved in the industry. To be honest, the film is a tough sell to anyone outside Uzbekistan, with not much in the in the way of detail or context to explain what’s happening on screen.
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