Shimu is 23 years old and works in a clothing textile factory in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka. She earns little money while working many hours while her husband is unemployed, searching for work. But having fled her village as a child after her stepmother threatened to marry her off to a much older man, she is used to being in tough situations that challenge her ethics. Faced with increasingly harsh conditions at work including a fire that ends with the death of one of Shimu’s colleagues, she decides with her colleagues to set up a union. Shimu must continue despite threats from the management and disapproval of her husband. Together, the women must fight and find a way to have a better life while producing many of the clothes that people in western nations unconsciously buy and wear.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and emerging. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
