This seems to be a theme in the films that I am watching at the Melbourne Film Festival that when people have power they will abuse it, and by people I mean men.

This film by Laïla Marrakchi is about women but you can’t escape the predicament they are in because of men. These are Moroccan women who have taken jobs that bring them across to Spain to harvest strawberries in the summer. They are promised €35 a day but of course when they get to the farms, they are isolated and mistreated. and underpaid.

Hasna (Nisrin Erradi – you might recognise her from Adam (2019)) is our main protagonist and at first she seems to be someone who will stand up to this treatment. She has a son back home she wants to earn money for and was once a tae kwon do champion. In her shipping container dormitory is Meriem (Hajar Graigaa), who is sweet and pragmatic, Khadija (Fatima Attif) who has been there for five years and knows the ropes and Zineb (Hind Braik) who approaches each day with optimism.

It doesn’t matter how hard they work, they can never seem to earn quite enough. The acres and acres of plastic stretches as far as the eye can see. And then when there are water shortages, the fruit is left to wither on the vine and they have no work.

There is a pivotal scene that is at the heart of the film where Meriam is propositioned by the jefe, the chief of the work site Ian (Paco Mora). I say propositioned but she is actually forced into a situation where she is obviously assaulted. Hasna has the opportunity to protect her but chooses to protect her job instead.

From this comes an awful unravelling that affects all of the four women. They receive help from an aid organisation but the reality is they are pitted against people with power. And these people are protected by the police and so what is missing is any sense of justice.

As you are watching the storiy spiral out of control, you can’t help but muse on what happens when you make a group of people less than human. It allows people to do anything they want with them, and often this means profiting or abusing.

There are great performances and the pacing of the story keeps you absorbed and unsure of where it is heading. It felt palpable how difficult the choice would be between standing up for something that is right and protecting your ability just to survive.

It’s not an easy watch, but there were moments of joy and a sense of hope for some of these women.