It's a Free World...

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Angie (Kierston Waring) is fired from her job after not taking any cr*p off her boss who pinches her bum in public. Understandably riled, she decides to play him at his own game and set up her own recruitment agency (the job she was fired from in the first place) and dole out jobs for immigrant workers who will work below the minimum wage. However, she soon learns in this cut throat game the people at the top control everything and when she finds herself unable to pay her 'staff', things get nasty. Angie is driven to become more ruthless and mercenary as the stakes get higher.

I must confess I don't think I've seen a Ken Loach film before, but his style is hard to deny. Despite his work getting him noticed in Hollywood, his love for depicting British social realism has kept him firmly grounded on this side of the pond and by the looks of things, that's that with him.

Though not telling a true story, this is similar to Nick Broomfield's docu-drama Ghosts with it's themes of cheap immigrant workers keeping our economy flowing and the sh*tty deal they are dealt, coming here thinking Britain is the land of prosperity only to find themselves in a situation not much better than if they'd stayed at home. Pretty depressing stuff but then, that's what we do best and that's the way things are. This is a film full of characters to feel sorry for, trapped in a system that makes them all go over the edge, from Angie who has a soft, caring side that allows her to take an Iranian family under her roof after discovering them living in poverty to a need to succeed that sees her reporting a rival camp of illegal workers so she can move her own in to, of course, the workers with a genuine desire to work and contribute something who end up going through all that cr*p for peanuts.

The relentlessly grim tone doesn't make for a top viewing experience then, but this is still a relevant and interesting story that serves as great food for thought. ***

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.

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.

As a non-Brit it is amazing and certainly amusing to see all the British behave in such a distinct way, only common to the islanders and I do not mean any of that slur which this politicised film tries to mobilise against. For example, scenes in which family is involved, are beautiful characterisations of more or less typical working class households, or rather any British folks.

However, this film as well portrays fair business, the downside of capitalistic societies, in which free market only stops at borders, where nationality defines status and not your labour. Refreshingly, no easy answers are offer, no left-leaning ideologies or right-wing polemics penetrate the film. Thus, it is able to scratch a picture of phenomena without solutions; hence, not very entertaining.

Anyway, it is worthwhile to watch It's a Free World,only if it were for the insightful studies into human behaviour.

Enjoy it.

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.