DUBAI: MIRACLE OR MIRAGE? is a one-hour documentary that examines one the world’s most fascinating and fastest developing city-states.

Surrounded by war zones, Dubai remains blissfully peaceful. This state which is smaller than the province of Prince Edward Island has become home to superlatives – the biggest building, the largest airport, the tallest hotel, the richest horse race are all situated in Dubai.

Forty years ago it was a sleepy backwater, now it is a magnet for the young and ambitious from around the world. But this meteoric expansion comes at a price. To accommodate the tsunami of foreigners known as expats, Dubai, a Muslim state, turns a blind eye to some of these visitors’ excesses, often to the great displeasure of the locals known as Emirati.

This massive influx of expats which includes hundreds of thousands of indentured labourers from South Asia is crucial if Dubai Inc. is to reach its goal of becoming an economic and tourist powerhouse. It’s also led to an extraordinary phenomenon. Emiratis are now a minority in their own land. We meet some of these Emirati both young and old and some of the expats including a number of Canadians, as they work and play in this unreal world of Dubai.

Produced by Ted Remerowski for Tremer Productions.