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Amazon.co.uk Review
It's a Free World, the latest collaboration from the Palme d’Or winning director Ken Loach, writer Paul Laverty and producer Rebecca O’Brien is a drama rooted in the world of illegal employment in contemporary Britain. The story follows ill-educated Angie, who is tired of being messed around by her chauvinistic bosses at the recruitment agency where she finds Polish workers low paid jobs in the UK. When she walks out of her job, she has a point to prove to all those who know her. Angie begins work in a twilight zone between gang masters and employment agencies in a tale set against the background of flexible labour, globalisation, double shifts and lots of happy, happy consumers. It’s a Free World was awarded the Best Screenplay at the 2007 Venice Film Festival and Loach and team won the coveted Palme d’Or in Cannes last year for The Wind that Shakes the Barley, which went on to be his most successful ever UK release. The DVD includes fantastic ‘extra’ material, including an exclusive Director’s Commentary by Ken Loach.
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: The story of two women who set up a recruitment business from their kitchen table and employ illegal immigrants to work for them. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: BAFTA Awards, British Independent Film Awards, Venice Film Festival, ...It's a Free World... ( En un mundo libre... ) ( Es ist eine freie Welt )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's a Free World - timely comment on social change,
By
This review is from: It's A Free World [DVD] (DVD)
I saw this film in the cinema then decided to buy it to show my students who are learning English and studying Humanities. I find it thought provoking and so did my students. Students abroad all too often receive a picture of the UK as 'red buses or fish and chips' so this film helps to dispel some of those myths, as well as making the students think about what happens in their own countries with immigrant workers. I found the subtitles were essential because of the realism of the filming and dialogue. I would have liked to know for sure before purchase that subtitles were available - and in English, although, to be fair, they usually are.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good.,
By Donaldo "Book lover" (Manchester, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: It's A Free World [DVD] (DVD)
This is certainly one of Loach's better recent films. I wouldn't say it is brilliant, but there isn't anyone else out there making interesting, challenging and intelligent political films at the moment.
In terms of the script, the selection of the main character is really what turns the film from a boring also-ran into something quite clever. Angie is very much a modern woman - independent, perhaps not too academically smart but certain not stupid and prepared to work hard and ambitious for herself and her son - particularly given the Dad's utter uselessness. Very much one of Thatcher's children, her experience in the workplace is of people screwing her over - so the only way to get ahead is to do the same to others. To do this, she starts up an agency paying `starvation' wages to illegal immigrants. She justifies this to herself as doing them a favour - at least she is getting them employment. It's a convincing, compelling performance, an accurate portrayal of a modern mindset - socially liberal, but politically only self-interested. It's done well that we both sympathise and revile Angie's behaviour. Without a character as carefully crafted as Angie - this film would be pretty dull and predictable. It certainly allows the film to rise considerably above the average.
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"You think your children are more important than ours?",
By GeekZilla "He's the strongest, he's the quick... (Doncaster, Yorkshire, UK.) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 50 REVIEWER)
This review is from: It's A Free World [DVD] (DVD)
This is a film which should be viewed by all the Daily Mail readers who think that all this country's problems are caused by immigrants and Asylum seekers.
This film shows how the poor folks who enter this country are treated, how they are effectively treated as slaves on a "starvation wage". Exploiters think the exploited should be thankful for what they've got. This is the true picture of the immigration situation in the UK. Immigrants don't sponge from this country - unscrupulous business men exploit them in the most demoralising ways. The film deals with this from an interesting angle; a woman who has been 'screwed over' in every job she is in. After being fired from an agency who entice foreign workers into the UK on the back of false promises of a regular wage, she decides to set up her own agency. Angie is a single mother, hard working, she wants the best for her son. But she too exploits the foreign workers and coins it in whilst they go for weeks without receiving a wage. Things aren't black and white in this film - you empathise with Angie and are desperate for her to come up on top. But you also want her to get her comeuppance for adding to the problems of desperate people and treating them as her business assets rather than human beings. Things get ugly for her, but the violence and also compassion by those who seek vengeance adds to the fullness of this film. I personally have always been a left-wing thinker and supported the plight of the foreigners who are mistreated, abused, and used as a hate vehicle by the media. This film will hopefully open the eyes of those who think that 'Johnny Foreigner' is coming over here and 'stealing our jobs', a massive tabloid fallacy. We should be disgusted by the conditions imposed on the forgotten workforce who are hidden and mistreated in order that we can buy cheap products at the super markets and clothes shops. Angie's dad is the voice of reason in this film; he is disgusted by what his daughter is doing. It is her dad who uses the phrase "starvation wage" - Angie is in denial and convinces herself that she is doing good, even accusing him of being a rightwing National Front thinker when he is actually voicing his opinion from the left! The realism of this film gives it an extra boost. The acting doesn't look like acting, it looks like real people in real situations. At points I was convinced that some of the roles aren't played by actors, but people in the actual role. Whether this is the case or not, Loach has managed to pull off another classic showing real life in a way the viewer can believe. There - I managed to review a Ken Loach film without using the word "Gritty" once! Doh - I used typed it!!!
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