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As of May 21, 2012

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Screen Spotlight Featured Reviews

It's A Free World

Written by Jonathan Jacobs

They are exploited, abused, some live in fear, they are treated no better than slaves, they live in third world conditions equal to those they left behind, in search of a better life. Perhaps they fled, having been tortured, or are victims of the political oppression of some extreme political regime...

In this film they are deemed to be fodder and a meal ticket for two women, who embark on playing a dangerous game. The film starts with job interviews, in Poland. The principle character is "Angie" (Kierston Wareing) an attractive woman, with a mop of dyed blond hair and a bubbly personality. All is not right as relates to her job, and we discover she has had a long line of more than thirty jobs. Perversely, one of her colleagues is a little overindulgent and feels her up. Once back in England, she finds herself out of a job, an injustice that has prevailed.

This set back leads her to make some kind of life altering vow; to become a boss and make her own decisions. She entices her friend Rose (Juliet Ellis) into her scheme. When the film gathers pace, we find her boldly organising gangs of immigrant workers. We have to admire her tenacity, and she seems affable. As her project gains momentum, it is obvious she and her partner have been dazzled by the easy money they can earn from their totally illegal agency that supplies immigrants to factories to do tedious work, jobs that most people would shy away from. The immigrants and Angie have to get up early, to no doubt avoid the attention of the authorities. There are certainly takers for these mundane jobs on offer, indeed each morning many scurry to be the chosen ones. We then discover, Angie is a single mother, who has a complicated son, mostly brought up by his father. He is eleven years old, has broken the jaw of another pupil, and is stubbornly unrepentant. He is a young boy in need of his mother, he is a young boy with issues.

I thought some of the performances were excellent, especially from a cast of non-name actors. It has to be said that a non-native English speaker or indeed anyone of American origin, would find this film hard going in terms of understanding some of the accents. There is one character, the pub owner that lets Angie use his back yard, who would be incomprehensible to many and many film goers, most of whom would require subtitles to follow the dialogue.

Director Ken Loach serves up a strong dose of reality, an often unabashed depressing reality. The lines the actors speak are often realistic and everyday language. The aforementioned Scot, speaks in muffled tones, while munching a sandwich. This would not be a film to take somebody on a first date, as it is far from uplifting. It explores the darker side of human nature and harsh modern day realities. Even if this film has its flaws, it is an eye-opener to the controversial subject of immigration and their exploitation. It highlights a subject that people are often ignorant about. Many of the newspapers in the UK, have a long running diatribe depicting immigrants as if they come like a bubonic plague and are a danger lurking in the shadows. There are papers that spread a mantra with clichés such as: "They are going to take our jobs, spread diseases, lower all our standards of living, take our houses and land, change our way of life, Britain should be for the British." Some newspapers in the UK, shift beyond the verge of being bigoted and spread hatred and mistrust willingly, about those "unwanted" who darken our doorstep. If nothing else this film should draw out some kind of compassion towards immigrants, who have a life of duress bestowed on them due to their place birth and origin. Many take terrible risks fleeing from their countries. Of course, a small island, or other European nations, cannot accommodate all. However there are things that we can’t brush aside, which this film brings to the surface.

Compounding these immigrants misery, exploiting them so we can take advantage of cheap merchandise, making quick and easy money like slave masters, is all obscene, but this shadow is cast over us. Perhaps instead of waging wars and keeping the poor countries poor, we should think about helping them to have better conditions which would lessen the need for them to flee their countries of origin. Many who flee had far better and professional jobs in their own countries, jobs such as being teachers and doctors or lawyers, but instead they are forced into doing menial jobs as immigrants.

There are some poignant lines in this film. One factory manager, after deriding some of the immigrant workers, says it is better to use the illegal immigrants because they work harder under fear. Angie has a casual relationship with one of the Polish workers; however both she and her partner seem capable of only fleeting spasms of pity for the immigrants. They are pure and simple her source of revenue used as a means to buy expensive presents for her neglected son, and for other material possessions she desires (a chic apartment and an expensive car). When Angie’s pay masters fail to pay up, she has a sizable workforce demanding their meagre but hard earned earnings. Apart from feeble apologies, she has little she can offer them, or so we think.

Angie and her partner could easily give up on their quest for bettering themselves, common sense would dictate this, when she has the threat of violence looming. We see scenes of Rose counting many sizable wads of money, which they are holding back from their workforce. Angie is shown to be a "bitch from hell," when she informs the authorities of some immigrants living on some derelict area, in shoddy caravans. She does this to be able to utilise the same squalid premises for her own workforce. Angie does get her comeuppance; however she is like a gambler, who gets into debt and whose only irrational solution is to gamble further. Maybe it is modern day society’s fault such a situation exists, and greed implores people to take drastic action. The picture is well painted, well observed and at times skilfully acted. It’s A Free World is not a film easily digested and surely not intended to appeal to everyone. Maybe Ken Loach has made better films and will make better films in the future, however as I said earlier, the message of this film is of intrinsic value and even if a modicum of compassion emanates from the audience seeing this film, it will have done its job.