It's a Free World... (2007) User Reviews (28)

Could have been better, but still an interesting and relevant story about what goes on today

[wellthatswhatithinkanyway · 7/10 · 8 November 2008]

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. ***

terribly realistic

[antoniotierno · 7/10 · 10 October 2007]

This movie is given an extra boost by its considerable realism. Acting, situations and people are so real that every character seems to be played by men and women in their lives, rather than by professional actors. Ken Loach limits himself to set out the problem and doesn't offer any solutions (that probably don't even exist); the huge problem is poor folks entering the UK, being exploited and given a starvation pay whereas many Britons think the problem of their country is them seeking a better life. The lead actress is shown as a very negative but memorable character, and every situation is seen from her angle, the one of a girl trying to redeem herself in such a negative way. Overall the film is excellent for its fullness and for its realistic roles (Angie's father as well).

A strong film that does not pull its punches

[howard.schumann · 8/10 · 18 January 2009]

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.

Loach's Latest Film is Characteristically Engaging And Enlightening, Even If It Feels Contrived

[Afzal-s2007 · 26 September 2007]

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.

A reflection on the mobility of laborers in the European Union

[eabakkum · 7/10 · 22 November 2010]

It's a free world ... is a typical Ken Loach film, and thus lacks the black-and-white portayals, that characterize many Hollywood products. There are neither bad nor good guys, but evidently there is something terribly wrong with the system. You are urged to consider, that may be the regulations of the contemporary capitalist society require some adjustments. In this film Loach dissects the effects of the free mobility of laborers in the European Union. In the past decades many poor countries have been added to the European Union, so that the extensions have increased the overall inequality. Inequality fosters exploitation, and indeed the labor force of the poor countries is drained by the producers in the wealthier ones in order to dispose of an excess of cheap labor (which helps to suppress the domestic wage level as well). The social costs are externalized and rolled off to the society (cf. Margareth Thatcher: There is no such thing as society!!). In the film this development is represented by a really dirty business woman Angie (played by Kierston Wareing), the main character, who together with her partner Rose (Juliet Ellis) starts a temporary employment agency for East-European unemployed workers in London. Somehow they are more stupid than deeply evil. Their only aim is to get rich quick, in particular Angie who is heavily indebted. She makes contracts with dubious firms, and overrides any regulations with respect to working conditions. Eventually she even mediates for illegal workers (from Iran etc.), since these are still more profitable. She has a son, but not surprisingly he has to be raised by her parents. In the end, Angie is deceived herself, when her major costumer refuses to pay. Consequently, Angie can not pay the illegal workers. Here the story gets a bit incredible, since a masked squad of the illegal workers raids her apartment, and extorts her. Anyway the message is clear: crime does not pay. The film gives no solutions, but invites you to reflect. For me, there is no logic in the mobility of workers. Capital should move to available workers, and not the reverse. People tend to feel secure and at home in their own surroundings. These are the places, where they have their social networks. Migration uproots people, and makes them vulnerable to disorganization. In fact the film has a resemblance with The Grapes of Wrath. I was told, that in the USA the peoples mobility is somewhat less of a problem, because there is a single language and the federal culture has spread through the states. In addition most Americans have a family background of migration, although emerging out of dire needs. Nevertheless, all people tend to take root. The acceptance of mobility in the USA does not mean that it is actually a good and economically necessary thing. One final remark about Kierston Wareing. She more or less outperforms Julia Roberts. A striking example that it is your coterie that counts, and not your talents and qualities. If social films interest you, consider reading some of my other reviews.

Journey through a Urban Jungle

[tigerfish50 · 7/10 · 18 August 2010]

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.

a surprisingly weak film I think.

[ib011f9545i · 6/10 · 2 June 2020]

I know a lot of people love Ken Loach's work and I like some of his stuff. I finally caught up with the dvd of this and was not much impressed. Loach is known as a message director,but in this the message is unclear.

Working class single parent sets up own business (good) but it is an employment agency for migrant workers (bad). You would expect the script in a Loach film to have a clear message but the message in this is unclear to me anyway. Is the message that the migrant workers are being exploited? ok but if they are working illegally what about legal workers exploitation?



Some of the scenes in this look improvised and they don't work. The lines are sometimes poor or the performances faulty but they are still in the film so god knows what the rejected versions were like.

Let (s)he who is not guilty cast the first stone...

[Immersion · 9/10 · 25 September 2007]

First of all, I think this film quite rightly got the plug it deserved on all of the Broadsheets in the UK. This might be partly due to the involvement of Ken Loach himself but also because it is a rather poignant essay of the one crucial aspect of globalisation – the richer countries exploiting the availability of the cheap labour available from the poorer countries.

This is not the first of its kind to be done, but this film had sympathy, warmth, objectivity and class and a viable plot. The whole film, however, is carried by Kierston Wareing, with no real development of other characters such as her business partner or even her dad, who both could have highlighted the different shades of the argument and perhaps externalised some of the conflicts that we all face when we encounter the by-products of such exploitation. By this, I mean the cheap strawberries in the supermarkets, casual builders, the "baristas" working behind the various Coffee chains and basically all of the other unsung victims who go to subsidising every aspect of our material life.

The basic kernel of the film does succeed to some extent in showing the different facets of the human character such as sympathy for the individual versus the indifference to the abstracted group; highlighting the similarities in the trials and tribulations of people in both the 'host' and the 'donor' countries; the fact that a lot of people are up for making a quick buck off the suffering of others; and that people exist who will try and be fair to others regardless of their backgrounds.

However, the reality might not be so clear cut and easily digestible. Perhaps not all of the immigrant workers are so docile and placid; perhaps not all immigrant workers are so subservient and accepting when the roles are reversed and the female becomes the sexual predator; perhaps not all immigrant workers insist on "passing on the favour instead of returning it".

While it is a noble effort and some effort has been made to highlight the plight of such immigrants, it is still just a snapshot of a much more knotty problem – a problem that we are all, to some extent, responsible for.

That said, "Bravo" to the fantastic Mr. Loach for agreeing to get his "hands dirty" with such a current and contentious subject.

An unexpected film !

[ombelinemonteils · 6/10 · 13 May 2018]

I liked this film even if I would not go to see it normally. I mean, this is just not the type,of film that I like, it's too realistic and I prefer thrillers or fantasy films. But it was a good surprise, the plot is well-directed and I have nothing to say about the actors' game. This film tells us the story of Angie, a single mother who will lose her job after an act of sexual harassment. She will decide to launch her own firm with the help of Rose, her friend and accolyte. I liked the contrast between the two : when Angie is short-tempered and shows her dark side, Rose is more down-to-earth and is deeply nice. Well, I liked this film but it was a little bit slow I think, like a sort of floating in "action"... And some of the "dialogues" were here just for the fitting of scenes which were empty of action. Most of the time, it was interesting but they were moments which were quite boring and some of them were just completely deadly-boring. But it was a good film, it opened my eyes on things that I didn't know. This film was quite interesting even if there were useless scenes. I recommend it for people who are interested on this theme but don't go if it's not a subject that you're interested in, because it's much socially and politically engaged, it's not a criticism, but sometimes it was difficult to follow the story because I didn't understand the social context. It was good, nothing more, nothing less. It was not vibrant, I didn't feel my blood burning in my veins, it was just good but I'm not an expert. So I think if you know the news and if you are interested in this theme, go !

recently unemployed single mother Angie aims to start up her own recruitment agency for stranded legal and illegal immigrants in London

[tiana90_9 · 10/10 · 7 January 2008]

I often feel like giving a film a ten somehow weakens the review and arguments but in my humble opinion this latest work from Ken Loach is absolutely spot on! The element I applaud the most is its nuances and subtlety. Nothing is black and white, the characters are complex and display at times total disregard for humanity and at others touching empathy, thereby making a stronger point of the complexity of the situation at hand. The plot is relatively simple, but small exchanges between the characters that seem irrelevant bring a great deal of humanity to the film. Kierston Wavering is absolutely magnificent as Angie and every single other "actor" (professional or not) featured is spot on. A moving, honest, brave yet depressing masterpiece!

Realistic and a Window on Real Life

[lasofiadu · 7/10 · 1 May 2018]

During the British Screen Festival that took place last month, we had the opportunity to watch the movie « It's a Free World ! ». In short, this is the story of Angie who - after being sexually harassed by her coworkers - decides with a friend of hers to launch her own company. Unfortunately her job is to find work for immigrants who, most of them, don't have a passport, aren't allowed to be in the country. In this very complicated and actually very real situation, we discover how people want to spread their good intentions become victims of the working world. I liked this movie. I'm not hiding that I can't really be objective, because to me, a good film that shows real things, real settings, real people with real struggles. And this movie is made with much realism. I also like the fact that Ken Loach shows in his story how some people - bosses and workers as well - have to fight against the system, our system. It is pretty rare to show tough reality in fiction because, yes, we might want to escape our lifes and our struggles with mawkish and Marvel films, but sometimes, we unfortunately have to face the truth to care more and change things. And, with cleverness and without filter, Ken Loach shows us the truth, he sowes us what we need to see to react, to try to change things, and that's why I liked this movie.

Great film from an important artist

[thespanishcaravan · 9/10 · 11 September 2007]

I was able to attend a screening of the film at the Toronto Film Festival and have nothing but great things to say about it. The film follows Angie as she struggles to find herself in the world and take care of her young son. After being fired from her job she takes it upon herself to start a recruitment agency to bring cheap labour into England from eastern European countries. Although her intentions are good we learn throughout the film how difficult it is to keep things legitimate and even safe. Ken Loach does an amazing job of bringing this story out. It sends a strong message about immigration and labour without preaching. The story is essentially told from the corporations point of view through Angie and shows logic in their cost cutting measures, while at the same time presenting them as inexcusable. The film is gritty and even dirty looking which fits perfectly into the London underbelly that it is trying to show. Lastly the film begins and ends with the dynamic performance of unknown Kierston Wareing. Luckily she spoke at the screening because if she hadn't I wouldn't have been able to believe she was acting. A real star making performance that required nuance as well as strength. She created a real character who's decisions never seemed forced or contrived. I can't say enough good things about it, I hope that many people see this film so they can also appreciate it. The top notch script was created by long time Loach scribe Paul Laverty

modern work

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 21 August 2016]

Angie (Kierston Wareing) is frustrated after getting fired from being a recruiter. She's 33 and in debt. She's tired of dead end jobs and decides to start her own recruitment agency with her flatmate Rose (Juliet Ellis). They struggle to build up the business as Angie gets pulled into using illegals as laborers. Her son Jamie is getting in trouble at school and her parents want her to be more involved. They disapprove of her work. She's sleeping with Pole laborer Karol. Mahmoud is an illegal and political dissident from Iran who has his wife and kids.

Director Ken Loach tackles the modern world of labor and illegal immigration in a real world way. It's all murky and ethically challenged. Wareing is pretty good. She's great as a hard-headed woman always striving. There is a shocking turn. It's not the shocking turn that I would expect. I can't complain because it fits the murky ethics that is the backbone of this movie. This has a point of view and sticks to it all the way to the very last scene.

A miserable world

[gurrunete · 4/10 · 7 May 2012]

Ken Loach is one of Britain's most prolific directors nowadays. His movies and his personal style have also gathered a faithful group of fans and followers (and many awards, as well). He takes on many subjects that would otherwise have a hard time finding their way to the big screen, such as the Irish revolution or the actual state of unemployment and abuse of immigrants, which is the theme of 'It's a free world....'

The script, written by Loach's regular screenwriter Paul Laverty, is really sober. There is not much in the sense of artificiality, with dialogue that seems real and fitting to the characters and setting. Perhaps too much. Their mumbling is quite hard to follow, and abundant, and most of the action on the screen feels a lot like a filling. This can be blamed on Loach's approach on directing, following his usual style of being just an observer. Although it's a commendable approach, it can also lead to make the movie quite boring and messy, which is the case with 'It's a Free World....' Most of the time, the movie just feels interested on showing how miserable are everyone's lives, which is guess is fitting to the context of the film, but it is a bit too much. The supposed-to-be humorous breaks, to make the movie easier to swallow are quite obtuse and scarce, leaving us with plain drama. And that is my main grumble about the movie: it feels so obsessed to show how miserable everything is that most of the times it just forgets that it is a movie. At the end I just wanted it to finish, as I was not only bored, but annoyed with how obvious and manipulative the movie turned out to be.

The acting, as usual with Ken's movies, is filled with fresh faces. Most of the actors are newcomers, and that actually helps immersing the spectator in the movie, for good or bad. Their gibberish is so hard to follow that you might actually need the help of subtitles in order to know what is going on in most scenes. From the ensemble, Kierston Wareing stands out as the lead character, giving a much-needed stream of energy to the film. The rest, however, feel amateurish, which can be a good or a bad thing, considering the documental-like approach of Loach.

'It's a Free World...' sure isn't a movie for everyone. It is, like every Ken Loach film, a film striving for showing a reality, to criticize a wrong, and somehow, be food for thought. Sadly, that seems to be the one and only motivation behind this movie, it being absolutely oblivious that, after all, it is a film. That is a common problem, for me, with English social dramas: the obsession of showing how miserable life is, and nothing else. At the end, I was absolutely bored and pleading for it to end, instead of being shocked and disgusted to the reality 'It's a Free World...' tried so hard to criticize. I would still recommend it to those interested in the problems of immigration and work nowadays, but warning them that, as a film, it does not deliver at all.

Not perfect but relevant, topical and convincing

[bob the moo · 11 December 2007]

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.

Good Effort and Unique

[MikeyB1793 · 7/10 · 4 October 2009]

It's not often one sees a film on migrant workers in England from Eastern Europe. These workers are exploited as in underpaid or not paid. The film has a gritty and convincing performance from the lead actress (Kierston Wareing).

However there is a lack of logic and continuity in the movie. There are too many sub-plots that go nowhere and are distractive. She has an on and off again romance with a Polish worker which does not really add anything to the plot. She helps a family from Iran for a day and they conveniently disappear. The scenes with her son – who is being cared for by her parents – are more tangible.

At the end of the movie she is physically assaulted by workers who are demanding to be paid. They take her money and threaten to kidnap her son. The very next scene abruptly takes us to the Ukraine where she is continuing to recruit. Then the movie ends!!

Kierston Wareing puts pro actors to shame

[rowmorg · 7/10 · 8 December 2009]

Another slice of low life from Ken Loach, this is an "issue" picture dealing with trafficking in stateless workers. It's not the first, but this one features the astonishing Kierston Wareing, who landed this leading role after appearing briefly in just one TV episode. Kierston can play the pushy cow in the workplace, the caring neighbour and mother in private, and the tender lover in the bedroom. Strutting around getting her new business together, rounding up clients and welcoming curious workers, in all-black leatherette motor-bike togs, she makes this otherwise rather ordinary little drama stand out. When the going gets rough, she is utterly believable as the plucky fighter standing up for herself against an all-male world. When things go pear-shaped, she is the vulnerable female, but also the protective mother, as determined as any tigress. Throughout, we are rooting for her, even when she is obviously losing her way in a messed-up workaday world. At the end of the film, she is doing the wrong thing in order to do the right thing, and Loach has shown up brilliantly the conflicted people who traffic in the misfortune of their fellow workers. Definitely see this picture, if only to relish Kierston Wareing's maiden performance.

You lovely Brits...Good film, though

[schwarty · 8/10 · 15 November 2007]

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.

A very relevant film that portrays a very dark side to society!

[Numblock · 8/10 · 7 January 2008]

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.

A thought-provoking portray of working-class and immigration problems

[flopthelollipop · 10/10 · 1 May 2018]

The film 'It's A Free World' captures the story of a self-employed woman, Angie, who starts up a recruitment agency with her flatmate Rose. They employ immigrants from Eastern Europe who live in the London underbelly, illegally of course.

In my opinion, the actors chosen by the famous film director Ken Loach did an extraordinary job, their performance is incredibly realistic, true to life, nothing seems black and white. Angie, performed by the unknown Kierston Waring is a strong-minded character who doesn't think twice before doing things, but she is a real warrior even if she isn't always honest with the immigrants and herself. Rose is more rational-minded, she stands up for justice and equality. This film is a masterpiece of social realism, it shows disregard for humanity, an eye-opening mirror of the English society. It also reflects on European problems, especially immigration workers. On one hand the plot is really disturbing, upsetting and can even be frightening, on the other hand it is poignant and entertaining. I really enjoyed the way it has been shot, the camera is always moving, we can see interesting filming perspectives.

I think that this film is really important for us, young people to see and understand. Even if it is happening in the United Kingdom, it concerns the whole E.U.. And with the Brexit it became even more relevant for us to know what is going on in England! We are the new generation who has to fight for justice, equality and peace, against segregation and separation between different classes! So thanks to great artists like Ken Loach, people get informed about a gripping reality. Now it is up to us to react, to organise, to fight for a better world!

Predictable, underwhelming cautionary tale.

[anxietyresister · 24 September 2007]

An unemployed woman decides to start up an illegal immigrant agency in order to get rich quick and support her young son, Jamie. She isn't worried about being caught because Home Office punishments for being gangmasters appear to be minor, and soon the money starts rolling in. Unfortunately, one of her financial backers pulls out, and she is left with a lot of angry Eastern European workers who haven't gotten paid. Pretty soon things start to get out of hand...

What we have here is a character study of a young woman who initially does things by the book, but soon greed and desperation turn her into a heartless bitch... exploiting the poor foreigners at every turn. She even has a relationship with a Polish guy, until circumstances dictate that they can never see each other again. Her son has broken someone's jaw at school and is likely to get suspended, she argues consistently with her mother as to how he should be raised, her father is a bigot who reckons that that these cheap labourers who come from aboard are stealing occupations from the common British man... It's not hard to see why she's driven to despair.

All the ingredients would seem to be correct and present for an absorbing drama. Alas, someone seems to have got the recipe wrong, and the end result is a thoroughly unbelievable tale which is far too soap opera. The main character's transition from caring, loving mother to bully of the downtrodden is too sudden by half, and the underwritten script is easy to predict from start to finish. Plus, the climax almost made me laugh out loud in it's ridiculousness and implausibility. I won't spoil things for you, but let me ask you this: If you were out and about in a busy town with criminals lurking around every corner, would you REALLY leave your front door wide open while you looked for your missing son outside? With 10k in one of your drawers? Wouldn't you kind of suspect SOMEONE may gain entry while you're gone? Yes, very sensible this young lady is.

I cannot fault the acting, which is very naturalistic considering most of the cast are complete amateurs. Kierston Wareing is excellent as the blonde 34 year old heroine, accurately displaying the main character's split personality with such professionalism you'd think she'd been studying the art for years. Julie Ellis is good too, as the partner in crime to our protagonist who soon realises they are way out of their depth in the business they're in. I also like the camera-work, which portrays the action in a atmospheric way without moving about so much you feel seasick, and the lack of music, which is also laudable as it allows us to judge the film's mood for ourselves without feeling we're being manipulated. Sadly, all these pluses pale in comparison to the stale plot, and the entirely obvious way it will unfold. Not to mention the overblown events of the finale.

Sorry, Mr Loach, I respect you greatly but you can do a LOT better than this. Only a 5/10 I am afraid...

Ken wants to educate us... and rightly so!

[paolo_bf · 10/10 · 24 September 2007]

A reasonably involving, decent drama, but obviously Ken Loach's main concern it to unable us to have a clearer idea of what is really going on with our 'brave new world', globalization, we all need to work harder to compete, people in China need to work harder, everyone needs to work harder, and out of this sinister scam, unending progress etc. there is still half a billion people on planet hearth who don't have enough to eat and a few people filling their pockets. What we get from the media is selective snippets of information and outright lies, while none of this bunch of mercenary hacks would even dream of questioning the soundness of the oligarchic plutocratic system we call democracy! So I guess Ken is right, we need educating! And what better way to do that that to show us how the whole thing works in practice, the smaller wheels, the larger ones, the cogs. The people traffickers in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, the people mercilessly exploiting illegal emigrants in this country. The protagonist is a working class, down-on- her-luck, single mother. She, together with her flatmate and friend, uses her previous working experience to create a small but profitable working agency for illegal emigrants. She is just a troubled person, she's worried about social services taking her son away. She thinks she deserves credit, because instead of living on the dole (welfare), she's trying to crate a business, to 'make something of herself'. Just another little well meaning cog then! The voice of reason is represented by her working class father, who, without being idealogical and in a down to earth way tries to explain to his daughter what it is really going on: 'entire country being deprived of their teachers and doctors coming to this country to work as plumbers and builders, the only people to profit from this scam is big business!' Keep educating us Ken, because we badly need it!

Changing sides is never free

[stensson · 8/10 · 8 September 2008]

There's a new exploited class in the Western world. The illegal immigrants. Since they've got no papers, they will take any work, any wage, any risks. And there are people who are just too eager to help them.

The main person here is fired from a recruiting agency. She starts her own and also starts to exploit people like she's been exploited. The free world means almost slavery, since people without papers have no rights. But those who provide companies with such labour force can easily become the victims in this perverted order.

Another Ken Loach movie which put the unpleasant questions. And gives the unpleasant answers.

Globalized slave-work market

[Dr_Coulardeau · 10/10 · 20 January 2008]

That film has to be seen all over the world. It shows how in our globalized world the migration of people is perfectly organized and managed outside all legality with the accomplice-ship and cooperation of most governments or national services in the western countries concerned by these migrations. Here London, England. The volunteers (!?!) are essentially coming from the European Community (Poland) but also non members states from eastern Europe (Ukraine) and some countries going through a crisis like Iran and Iraq. The human beings are cattle as soon as they put their first toe in the system. They pay heftily for their passage first, just like the Jewish community had to pay for the passage of the Jews who were deported to Auschwitz. Then they will be exploited at two levels. First by the skyrocketing rents they pay for one fourth of a room or one fifth of a caravan. Second they will get some work every morning for the day and with no certitude of anything: no contract, no health insurance, no guaranteed payment of the miserable salary, no guaranteed schooling for the children. Everything is done outside any official declaration, evading taxes and all controls. And no serious service is doing anything to find out and bring things back in line. But the worst part is, though some men are behind this kind of slave market, the main flesh-eating character is a white woman, a false blonde, divorced with an 11 year old son abandoned to her own parents. She has a black associate who will finally drop out when the other trespasses beyond the narrow line between exploitation and slavery on one side and cattle- or even garbage-processing on the other. One day she will call immigration authorities to report a clandestine camp in order to get it emptied for her load of slaves that is arriving on the following morning. The black woman will be replaced and the whole forced-labor merry-go-round will start again and amplify its operation. The only advantage of being exploited by a woman is that young males will have to perform some personal service to the female slave-manager to get work on the following day. A film to be seen urgently. I was divinely surprised by the causticity of Ken Loach I was considering as slightly tamed before seeing this film. He can still bite, the old pit-bull.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Perhaps not as powerful as"The wind that shakes the barley", but even more real

[harry_tk_yung · 30 March 2008]

After winning a well deserved Cannes Palm D'Or with "The wind that shakes the barley" (2006) that meet head-on the issue of the political issue of the IRA, auteur Ken Loach went on to tackle the social issue of illegal immigrants workers in London, with "It's a free world". While Loach, even when showing a degree of sympathy, always maintains an overriding objectivity, the IRA issue is one that is emotionally dramatic. "It's a free world", however, is presented with such detachment that it at times looks like a documentary, although it is by no means without its dramatic moments.

This gritty tale, with profoundly disturbing realism, is told through the protagonist Angie, superbly portrayed by Kierston Wareing (who, incidentally, bears a certain resemblance to Angie Dickenson, to those who have watched movies long enough to remember her). A single mother of a sixth-grader, Angie loses her job and ventures out on her own, teaming up with roommate Rose to form an agency that arranges work for immigrant workers, often on a daily basis. The scene alternates between her personal life and business undertaking. In the former case, we see the continuing struggle to carry out a mother's responsibility to the eleven-year-old son who is staying with her parents on a temporary basis. There is also a very brief depiction of a romance with a very nice man, a worker in her labour force supply. It is the latter, however, that is the focus of the movie.

With perfect division of work, Rose does all the administrative work while Angie, riding her bike in an image almost as cool as Arnold Schwarzenegger (you know which movies), goes around hangouts of immigrate workers to collect her work force. With repeated scenes, many of us in the uninformed audience are drawn into this realistically depicted world of daily logistic of assembling immigrant workers of all shape and size, roll calls and dispatching them to colour-coded trucks to send them off to various factories. Things seem to go fairly well until Angie (with a very reluctantly Rose) is lured into the lucrative business of using illegal immigrants.

Gradually, the movie also turns into a taxing test of the audiences' scruples. Without passing judgment, Director Loach presents the audience with meticulous details for them to form theirs. We see how at the outset, Angie seems very sympathetic to the workers, to the extents that a young chap gives her a small gift to thank her for finding him such a good job. We see how she provides temporary accommodation at their place (with mild objections from Rose) to an Iranian family of four in a state of financial desperation. On the other hand, there is an ominous undercurrent of troubles of delayed wage payments by irresponsible employers. Initially, while these cheated workers pressure Angie for their wages, it looks as if she is as much as victim as they are. Gradually, however, she begins to change, becoming an exploiter herself, unscrupulous to a point when Rose can no longer live with her own conscience and withdraws from the partnership. Physical violence and threats only serve to harden Angie. In the last, open-ended, scene we see her in a recruiting trip to Ukraine. Whether she will eventually get into serious trouble is no longer important. The pressing question, as the audience leaves the cinema, is what kind of a woman is Angie. There would undoubtedly be a wide spectrum of views, from sympathy to denunciation. But perhaps even that is not important. Maybe Angie is only a case which Loach employs to educate the audience of a cruel reality.