Film takes close-up of Shanghai accused

Shanghai is treating government officials to a new movie - a morality tale about the evils of corruption starring 11 people seized in the city's pension fund case.

The propaganda film, presented in a documentary style with interviews, is called The Evil of Greed and runs for 40 minutes.

The existence of the film, which has not been shown to the public, was revealed recently by Yazhou Zhoukan magazine and Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po newspaper.

The cast includes several of the more than 20 government and state company officials implicated in the case, which involved misappropriation of more than 3 billion yuan from the pension fund for speculative investments.

But the highest profile figure in the story, former party secretary Chen Liangyu , does not grace the screen. Chen, removed from his post last year, was only recently stripped of his party membership and handed over to the courts.

One of the stars of the show, former Baoshan district chief Qin Yu, complains he worked 16-hour days for a paltry salary and was tempted by the extravagant lifestyles of private businessmen.