Loach's new film " It's a Free World"recently debuted directly on Channel Four T.V. and "On Demand" download... Despite the success of "The Wind..." such is the dominance of Hollywood product over Cinema releases ,coupled with the pure expense of getting enough prints made for a nationwide release, that Loach concluded that a television debut for "It's a Free World" with the DVD out soon after,made much more sense...as a result ,it probably got a bigger audience,and i thought it played well as T.V. including ad' breaks...tea making time.
Subject matter is very pertinent ,highly politically charged , shockingly realistic to many,probably.
Have we really got "shanty town" ghettos of illegal immigrants living in the railway sidings of London?...well ...yes, apparently.
All actors are "unknowns " and "real" people. No doubt highly-rehearsed, then " improvised " on camera and looks "real"...
Central character is Angie ,played by Kierston Wareing,in her first film.
She is fantastic,reminding me of a youngish Stephanie Beecham,lookswise.
We meet Angie in Katowice, Poland, recruiting migrant workers.
Boorish colleagues ,drive her to a job-losing incident.. she coincidentally
befriends a young Polish bloke..She decides ,that, with her friend Rose,she will start her own recruitment agency..she is in fact becoming a "gangmaster" to illegal immigrants...her impetuosity is both her strength and her ultimate undoing.. Ken Loach's point of view is,undoubtedly represented on-screen by her father,attempting to prick her concience,and "do the right thing" by her working-class roots. Things are left open-ended...
As a fully signed up Ken Loach fan,this delivers in the humanistic ways that i expected. Another well realised piece of work that spoils you for all the clunky stuff...