Overseas
Directed by Sung-A Yoon 

“IF YOU can bear it and they don’t hurt you physically; if they feed you well and you get enough sleep — you’d better finish your contract,” advises a training instructor to a group of Filipino would-be overseas domestic workers during a pep talk. They are urged not to give up: what they can earn abroad they cannot earn in the Philippines.

Sung-A Yoon’s eye-opening documentary shines a light on a totally invisible profession encouraged by the government, exploring domestic slavery in a globalised world. 

The film follows a group of women at a training centre for domestic workers in the Philippines, where they are taught silver service, how to properly make beds, bath babies and deal with any form of abuse they may face in the workplace. 

The women speak candidly about their past experiences: the guilt and loss at having to leave their children behind for two years at a time; the physical and sexual abuse they have endured at the hands of their employers and employers’ families. 

The look of pain and upset as they relate their heinous stories, with tears streaming down their faces, is absolutely harrowing to hear and to see — one describes how she was treated “like a dog” by a former boss. 

Hailed as heroes of the economy by the president of the Philippines, owing to the huge amount of money they bring into the country, the women themselves do not share this view. 

They are told, if they start thinking of giving up, to remember the number one rule: “Help my family” — the sacrifice which they undergo to give their children a fighting chance.

Treated like slaves, the injustices they suffer are unfathomable and incomprehensible — did this haunting documentary not reveal what happens in this day and age. 

Available on demand