Sharp, incisive, provocative and engaging, It’s a Free World… is a wonderfully balanced piece of filmmaking from a director who has often been accused of having a political axe to grind.
It’s a Free World… is based upon the plight of Eastern European migrants who provide a cheap labour pool for wealthier European Union nations. The story centres around the brash and blonde Angie (Kierston Wareing), who is laid off from a recruiting company that brings workers from Poland to the United Kingdom. Angie persuades her flat-mate and long-time friend Rose to take a huge leap into the void and start their own recruiting agency.
It’s a Free World… studies what happens when personal ambition rubs up against social ethics, or the lack thereof. Loach avoids all moralizing; despite the fact that Angie is such a persuasive protagonist, she is also a complex and shaded individual in his hands. She becomes one of his greatest creations, giving this film an undeniable, compelling force.
“As driven, energetic Angie, Wareing is dynamite in her first film role. Appearing in nearly every scene, she burns up the screen” (Alissa Simon, Variety).
– Piers Handling, 2007 Toronto International Film Festival Programme Book
Rated 14A.
