Hero director of the working class, Ken Loach works with long time screenwriter collaborator Paul Laverty to create a rigorous polemic about illegal immigrants in London.
Single mom Angie (powerfully played by Kierston Wareing) starts a job-recruitment agency with her roommate Rose (Juliet Ellis) to place illegally outsource unskilled, non-English speaking immigrants in "flexible" jobs.
The chaos of a deregulated economy has Angie ruthlessly focused on her own survival/success to the exclusion of the underpaid workers that she exploits to greater depths.
Realistically filmed, but limited by narrative cuts that hopscotch through time, "It’s a Free World" is a flawed film that overflows with ideas.
Anti-heroine Angie is a product of the "Thatcher counter-revolution" that views free-trade as a means to an end, even if it enables racism to rule the day in a system that is worse than slavery.
You should never pass up a Ken Loach movie, and this is no exception to the rule.
Not Rated. 93 mins.
