A FILM about the harsh and precarious lives of a group of Eastern European immigrant workers picking periwinkles on the Fingal Coast has won an international award.

A group of Latvian periwinkle pickers hit the local and national headlines back in 2005 when they had to be rescued an island off Skerries by lifeboats.

The incident led to calls for greater protections for migrant workers and has ultimately led to a documentary film called 'Tide' which examines the lives of those making a living from picking shellfish on our coastlines.

The film won Best Documentary 2009 in Latvia, and the producers are hoping it will be accepted to the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival next February.

Akajava Films are behind the project and they believe the documentary will come as a real surprise to Irish viewers because it shows the periwinkle industry on the Dublin coastline is now the exclusive preserve of immigrant workers.

Co-producer of the film, Brendan Culleton, said: 'No one knows about them. Irish people don't want to do that work, so they've found a space in Irish society that wasn't filled.'

It is hard work and the hours are dictated by the ebb and flow of the tide as the immigrants work to send much-needed cash back to their loved ones in Latvia and elsewhere.

The periwinkle pickers mostly live in Rush and can obviously only work when the tide is out - most of the produce they pick ends up on restaurant tables in France. The film shows a group of people working and living on the very edge of Irish society and how little the group has been integrated with the native Irish and should be a real eye-opener for locals if it wins a screening at the Dublin festival next year.

- John MANNING