It's a Free World

In It's a Free World…. Ken Loach demonstrates his continuing commitment to casting his critical, earthy, though engaging eye on present day issues affecting British society, issues that are usually neglected by mainstream British cinema.

These issues arise from the grey area that is the cheap foreign labour market in the UK. Loach explores the exploitation of cheap immigrant labour in East London with the insight, fluidity, humour and sensitivity that I have come to expect of him. He encourages the viewer to reflect on the lives of thousands upon thousands of immigrants from diverse countries and societies who are crassly lumped together, dehumanized and simplified, lives that most native Londoners take for granted.

Though impartiality has never been one of Loach's strong points, It's A Free World…. is refreshing in that it does not demonize the Brits who exploit foreign labour. Nor does it look for easy answers to the problems of immigration. Rather it has an understanding of the lure of easy money for British people with few options in life themselves. The film suggests that the larger culpability might lie with governing institutions that have lost control of the situation, and so have freed up the conditions for exploitation. Also, the message of the film seems to extend to most of us, being British citizens, as we daily and casually project our own sense of individual freedom onto the wider world around us. But for newer people, living precariously in our midst, the same world is far from a free one.

It may be argued that Loach's main aim with the film has therefore been achieved. However, on the negative side, It's A Free World's characterization and plot feels contrived. This is particularly true of the main character, Angie. It may not be a free world for many, but it certainly can be a strange world, and I am sure a single mum and biker babe who happens to be a redundant recruitment consultant could start up her own illegal recruitment agency. However, such a quirky character sits oddly with Loach's down-to-earth, everyday approach, which would make Angie look contrived and unbelievable if the non-professional actor in her first role, Kierston Wareing, did not play her so brilliantly, finding the humanity in her character so well.

Certain clichéd characters add to the film feeling contrived. This includes not only the censorious old boy who is Angies' father, which must now surely be a cliché of left-wing films, and Angie's casual boyfriend, a handsome, almost-angelic, two-dimensional Pole (written this way presumably to counter the gutter press' jaundiced cliché of a male immigrant, but such a two-dimensional character does not serve the film). This relationship feels laboured because it only exists to conveniently, and all-too-obviously, personalize the main character's external dilemma.

Still, It's A Free World is an engaging and enlightening film, even if it feels contrived.

When single mother Angie is fired from her job at an employment agency, she teams up with flat-mate Rose, and they venture into London's black market economy. They supply illegal immigrant labor to sweatshops and construction projects, before expanding into providing accommodation for her workers at exploitative rents. When Rose starts feeling queasy about the amorality of their schemes, Angie bamboozles her with empty promises of improved behavior in the future.

Writer Paul Laverty creates a credible and complex character, as his protagonist ruthlessly exploits society's victims, but later surrenders to a compassionate impulse and helps a family of Iranian political refugees. Angie's life becomes a catalogue of broken relationships, betrayals and brushes with authority, until her back-alley empire eventually implodes. Her journey can be seen as a metaphor of Britain's colonial rapaciousness and its repercussions, when retribution arrives in the form of shadowy individuals seeking payback. The gritty story is complemented by an excellent cast, and a break-out performance from Kierston Wareing as Angie. Needless to say, Ken Loach navigates through this seedy netherworld with his customary skill, but it's a rough ride through a bleak landscape.

Fired from her job in a recruitment agency due to a public outburst while recruiting in Poland, Angie decides to set up an agency with flatmate Rose. Undercutting other agencies and working out the back garden of their local pub, Angie builds up business, mainly off the back of a large construction job that she supplies immigrant workers to. Paying cash, below minimum wage and irregularly, Angie and Rose start to build up a little nest egg at the expense of their "workforce" but how sustainable is a business built on exploitation?

It is no surprise that as I watched this film the UK was in the midst of an immigration "debate" (and by "debate" I mean "tabloid-led fuss") because we always seem to be in the middle of a fuss on the subject. So no prizes to Loach for being topical but prizes should go to the film because it is a worthy subject and a solid film. The story is mostly very convincing as it focuses on the daily business of making money with cheap temporary labour and the reality of life in that world. As such it is effortlessly engaging and benefits from us being more or less on the side of the main character Angie, who is only doing what everyone else is doing – screwing down labour costs to maximise profit. From this point we start to get more and more into this world and find it to be just as terrible and exploitative as one would imagine, with blowback on everyone. The need for a narrative flow to the film ultimately means that it does exaggerate at some points to increase drama but mostly it works even if it far from uplifting stuff.

Of course those coming to a Ken Loach film cannot really claim to be surprised by this approach and nor should they be. His direction is excellent and he uses the streets, alleys and dingy flats of this world really well to keep true to the convincing dialogue from Laverty and the cast. I say the cast because I cannot imagine that it was this real on paper without the delivery. Wareing is wonderfully cast and she is instantly recognisable to anyone who knows the "cheeky sexy woman" who work as reps etc in the "real world". She works well alongside an equally good Ellis, who is less showy but no less real. Below them the cast are very convincing and I didn't see anyone "acting" at any point. This makes it easier to take all round because it mostly feels like we are just watching and not having Loach push our face into it.

As depressing and hopeless as this approach makes the subject, I did not feel it was anything other than fair. We all know that the world is built on money and that if it can be done cheaper, someone will try and do so regardless of the non-financial costs. This film paints a convincing picture that mostly avoids preaching and, aside from the dramatics towards the back end, it uses Angie as our eyes into a world that is exploiting, heartless and desperate. Not perfect but it is relevant and an important part of the debate on the real costs of immigration and capitalism.

This film captures perfectly one of the many faults of capitalism, it portrays an extremely sad situation of the desperate struggle that some people have everyday to earn money. In this case it follows the exploitation of foreign workers who came to England (London) in desperate search of work, and the lengths they will go earn money. The central character (Angie) played by Kierston Wareing is a self employed recruitment agent an ambitious and vibrant women who wont take no for an answer, she has a certain cheek and charm that is compelling and shows us some level of kindness, but also has a darker side which she has no problems in showing to people. Her friend and flatmate (Rose) played by Juliet Ellis is portrayed as the more rational minded and frankly kinder person, who relapses that sometimes it's not always about the money. An inevitable twist of faith comes for Angie where she is put in the position of victim, but does this change her views on life?

It is very well directed, showing the viewer the dull and bleak industrial estates and caravan parks of London which really suits the story and the depressive feel of the script.

Ken Loach and Paul Laverty done a great job with this film and like most of Loachs films is a striking and damning account of the depression to be found in working class England.

Winner of the award for Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival, It's a Free World, the seventh collaboration between director Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty, is a compelling look at the recruitment and exploitation of European undocumented workers, a subject touched upon recently in Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things. As in many of Loach's earlier films, It's a Free World has a strong feeling for those who live on the margins in a society that does not care and, uncharacteristically for Loach, is surprisingly even-handed, showing the viewpoint of both the victim and the victimizer.

The film begins in Poland as a group of recruits gather around the CoreForce Recruitment Agency, willing to pay money for the right to work in the U.K. Given temporary visas, they manage to land jobs in construction, factory work, or farm labor at minimum wage without any trace of benefits or job security. When Angie (Kierston Wareing), a thirty-three year-old working class recruiter from London is fired for complaining about sexual harassment on the job, she joins with her roommate Rose (Juliet Ellis) in building her own agency in the U.K., matching immigrants from Eastern Europe with employers in London. Riding around on her motorbike, she interviews prospective employers and locates temporary shelters for her workers who must pay extra for the housing.

At the outset, conscious of the law and of her integrity, Angie establishes the rule that she will not provide employment to undocumented workers. Much to Rose's chagrin, Angie soon bends these rules and slowly begins to lose her moral compass, joining the competition in the recruiting and exploiting of illegal immigrants. Though she shows compassion in supporting an Iranian refugee who is desperately looking for work, she later calls the Immigration Department to arrest illegal workers who are living in housing provided by a competitor. Angie's change may be prompted by the reminder of her need to provide for her eleven-year-old son Jamie (Joe Siffleet) who has been living with her parents and has developed a proclivity to break other students' jaws at school.

Her father Geoff (Colin Caughlin) visits and tries to be encouraging about her new business but his stance is simple: immigrants have brought their troubles onto themselves and should not take up any of our concerns. When Angie justifies her actions by saying that if the workers didn't want the jobs, they wouldn't show up, it is reminiscent of politicians who blame the media for their moral and spiritual retreats. The issues crystallize when a friendly construction foreman is ripped off and Angie is unable to pay her workers, leading to a physical assaulted and a threat against Jamie by the angry workers.

In her first feature film performance, Kierston Wareing shows great promise as the blonde, leather-jacketed, motorcycle-riding entrepreneur who is willing to deal with the sleazier aspects of the business. With the knowledge that decades of public policy have led to this situation, however, Loach does not single her out as the only culprit, simply one who is unable to look beyond a value system that can only see what is in their immediate material self interest. Though It's a Free World is far less impactful than some of the earlier Loach-Laverty collaborations, it is a strong film that does not pull its punches and did not deserve a one-day U.K. opening and a direct-to-DVD treatment.