While pricey restaurants in Berlin or Amsterdam serve fresh asparagus plucked from fields in the Czech Republic, none of the appreciative diners has the slightest idea that this much-loved item is only on their dinner plates thanks to the backbreaking work carried out by modern-day slaves - men and women lured from poor countries on false pretences and then held captive - beaten and threatened by armed guards if they ask for food, their wages or try to escape.
Adrian Mogoş, Petru Zoltan, Doru Cobuz (Romania), Vitalie Călugăreanu (Moldova) and Vlad Lavrov (Ukraine) spent three months investigating the cultivation of asparagus in Romania, the Czech Republic, Moldova, Transnistria - a breakaway state from Moldova - Ukraine and The Netherlands. The research led them to a criminal network of Ukrainian-run gangs that recruited hundreds of people to work as slaves in Bohemia.
Dutch follow-up "Modern Slavery" by Journeyman Pictures.
