Convenience Store: 1/10 immigrant workers are modern slaves

"Aliens do exist; there are 40,000 or 80,000 universes, and Allah lives there with other life forms. We know nothing about them; they may not need to breathe air, eat food, and drink water like us. After all, we are busy pursuing modern technology and forgetting how great Allah is." An old man speaks in a low voice at midnight on the outskirts of Moscow, while sleeping in a cramped warehouse crowded with other immigrant workers from Central Asian countries. This scene in the film "Convenience Store"（Also known as “Produkty 24”） is like a dream for those imprisoned by modern slavery.

Mukhabbat, the female protagonist in this film, epitomizes the conditions of modern slavery. She works in a 24/7 minimarket, lives in its warehouse, is not paid any money, and signs any contract given to her. Her passport is controlled by her employer who is the shop’s owner, and she is forced into a marriage with another immigrant worker arranged by a local imam. Mukhabbat later gives birth to a baby who has a bleak future and may potentially be sold to strangers. There is barely any chance of escaping because she is not Russian and does not have control over her own passport. Such poor living conditions and economic exploitation are reminiscent of places like Eritrea and North Korea, as well as Russia, northern Myanmar , and Turkey. As reported in the news, these are places which attract hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant workers or refugees.

So, is Mukhabbat destined to be this unfortunate her entire life? "At least, you can cook pilaf for me?" her young husband asks. To him, marrying her is just another task arranged by his employer, or at most, like acquiring an object of sexual pleasure without cost. "Just leave me alone," Mukhabbat replies with an unwilling tone.

"Does that mean our marriage is nothing but prayer words of the imam?" The young husband realizes that his youth is being wasted by living a monotonous life in the 24/7 minimarket.

This profoundly realistic film also incorporates some peculiar dream sequences. Upon hearing that her youngest female colleague was raped by a local gangster collecting protection fees, Mukhabbat experiences a nightmare at midnight. A blurry figure dressed in Central Asian attire enters her room while riding a donkey as strange music plays in the background and takes her sleeping baby away.

In the next scene at the minimarket, where the lights are always on, making it difficult for the audience to discern whether it is daytime or nighttime, the girl who was raped manages to escape. Infuriated, her employer starts beating every employee in the store. Shortly afterward, the police bring the runaway girl back and warn her employee, "You must watch over them. Luckily, our man found her in the subway and brought her back to my office." This shows that there is no hope of escaping without identification documents. Meanwhile, more young girls continue to work in the minimarket and fall victim to modern slavery.

After her newborn was abducted by the shop owner, Mukhabbat seizes the opportunity to escape and seeks help from a compassionate human rights activist who is one of the store's regular customers. Subsequently, she endures a challenging journey of having to go through indifferent bureaucrats in the embassy, immigrant administrative center, and criminal court. Eventually, with perseverance, Mukhabbat successfully boards a train bound for her homeland, Uzbekistan.

The “spoilers” described above closely mirror a real-life case of the "Golyanovo Slaves". In the autumn of 2012, 13 immigrant workers were liberated after being held against their will in a shop. Despite the entire local community being aware of the workers' captivity, the police in Golyanovo district, where the shop was located, refused to conduct an investigation. Shockingly, no arrests had been made as part of the official inquiry conducted by investigators.

Four years later, lawyers from several NGOs filed a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of four enslaved women in November 2016. The complaint alleges a violation of the prohibition of torture, discrimination, slavery and forced labor , as well as the right to respect for private and family life and to an effective remedy.

The latest date reflected on the timeline of the "Golyanovo Slaves" lawsuit on the Human Rights Resource Center website is January 2017, indicating that no arrests had been reported in connection to the case.

"Convenience Store," the film adaptation of this case, does not conclude in accordance with the reported timeline. Notably, its director, Michael Borodin, drew on his personal experience as an illegal immigrant in Moscow who came from the outskirts of Tashkent, Uzbekistan. While studying in a film school in Moscow, Borodin took on the role of a delivery person and engaged in various odd jobs that did not require legal identification. His firsthand experiences provided insight into the challenging paths faced by fellow immigrants. “I would be happy if the film had a positive influence on the lives of migrant workers, but I realize that there is little chance for this,” Borodin said in an interview.

His empathy with Mukhabbat propelled him to continue her story. As we follow the reticent heroine from the oppressive shadows of the Russian metropolis to the expansive landscapes of the director's hometown, the film undergoes a transformation from a harrowing tale to a road trip.

In the segments where Mukhabbat endures enslavement in Moscow, the audience's perspective is deliberately limited to mirror her own restricted viewpoint. Viewers can only infer from the occurrences in the warehouse and decipher who suffers unnoticed, depriving them of God's omniscient perspective. Upon Mukhabbat's return to her homeland in Uzbekistan, the film takes a sudden wide shot, revealing vast and inaccessible cotton fields. There, Mukhabbat realizes the harsh reality: she needs to pay for her family’s electricity and water bills, fund her elderly mother's surgery, and confront the stark absence of job opportunities except picking cotton.

Faced with limited options, the only path ahead is a journey back to Moscow. Also, a formidable driving force of Mukhabbat's journey is the lingering presence of her kidnapped baby, who is still in Moscow under the control of her previous employer. This compels her to reconnect with him, which mirrors a metaphorical vampire-like thirst, symbolizing the exploitative relationship between the Russian capital and vulnerable immigrant workers, and bringing to mind the historical ties between the Russia and Central Asian countries during past Soviet Union times.

The latest Global Estimates of Modern Slavery revealed that approximately 50 million people lived in situations of modern slavery on any given day in 2021. Russia holds the fifth position among countries with the largest number of people(1.9 millions) in modern slavery, while India rank 1st by the number of 11 millions. Presently, Moscow is home to more than three million Central Asian nationals, occupying one forth of its 13 million population. Karomat Sharipov, the head of Tajik Labor Migrants, stated that one in 10 migrants from Central Asia has experienced conditions that closely resemble slavery.（Data Source: statista.com）

Mukhabbat does not return to Moscow alone; she is accompanied by several young Uzbekistani women she met while working as a cotton picker. In the final scene of "Convenience Store," the apartment building that houses the minimarket shoots into the midnight sky of Moscow, resembling a rocket launch. This serves as a powerful representation of the collective journey of modern slaves embarking on a quest to explore the 40,000 or 80,000 universes where Allah resides.