
Fashion Victims
Dhaka's garment factories supply 75 percent of Bangladesh's export income, built on the world's lowest wages and famously loose safety rules. The film opens in the aftermath of the Rana Plaza collapse, an eight-story building that came down with over a thousand workers inside. Muktar, a safety compliance officer who was on the fifth floor when it fell, visits a hospital ward in Savar to see Labony, a friend pulled from the rubble with her arm amputated. More than a hundred survivors lost limbs, among them Pachi, 18-year-old Sonia, and Aruthi, who started working at age 12 and is now 14 with one leg gone and no plan for what comes next. Factory owners and a European buyer speak on camera, blaming retailers who squeeze prices to the point that safety becomes unaffordable. With no social security system, injured women depend on relatives for basic care, and compensation so far amounts to a few hundred dollars each from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers Association.