Dubai: A City of Dreams (2010)

DUBAI: A CITY OF DREAMS sheds light on the land most people only know for its huge skyscrapers and lavish amenities. The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammad, dreamed of transforming a sleepy fishing village into the ultimate metropolis of the 21st century. To make his dream come true, he turned Dubai into the biggest construction site the world has ever known. In just six years, he delivered the tallest building in the world, the most expensive hotel in the world, the biggest man-made island, the biggest shopping mall, the biggest airport and the longest fully automated metro in the world. This represents just 10% of his master plan. Creating a modern-day Rome at this speed has its price, however. That price coming at the cost of over one million cheap laborers. The laborers come from impoverished countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Southeast Asia. Their dream is much simpler. They just want to feed their children back home and carve out better lives for themselves. Instead, they work twelve hour days, six days a week and make 50 cents to 1 dollar an hour. No overtime. No paid vacations. They live in gated labor camps hidden away from tourists. On top of this, they must repay their $5,000 they were forced to pay before even beginning work. Things got much worse with the financial collapse in 2009. Sheikh Mohammad was forced to revise his original plan and countless development projects were canceled. Many workers ended up losing their jobs proving that Dubai is a city of dreams... just not the one they had hoped for.