It's a Free World... (2007)

Director:

Ken Loach

Writer:

Paul Laverty (writer)

Release Date:

29 February 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Angie gets the sack from a recruitment agency for bad behaviour in public. Seizing the chance, she teams up with her flatmate...

Awards:

3 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Kierston Wareing	...	Angie
Juliet Ellis	...	Rose
Leslaw Zurek	...	Karol
Joe Siffleet	...	Jamie
Colin Caughlin	...	Geoff
Maggie Russell	...	Cathy
Raymond Mearns	...	Andy
Davoud Rastagou	...	Mahmoud (as Davoud Rastgou)
Mahin Aminnia	...	Mahmoud's Wife
Shadah Kavousian	...	Mahmoud and His Wife's Child
Sheera Kavousian	...	Mahmoud and His Wife's Child
Frank Gilhooley	...	Derek
David Doyle	...	Tony
Eddie Webber	...	Company Director
Johnny Palmiero	...	Company Director

Also Known As:

En un mundo libre... (Spain)
Es ist eine freie Welt (Germany)
In questo mondo libero (Italy)
Polak potrzebny od zaraz (Poland)
These Times (UK) (working title)
Un mundo libre, En (Spain)

Runtime:

Canada:96 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

UK | Italy | Germany | Spain | Poland

Language:

English | Polish

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:15 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Netherlands:12 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Canada:14A | France:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Kiev, Ukraine

Company:

BIM Distribuzione

Quotes:

Karol: You know the old saying? Never return a favour, pass it on.

Movie Connections:

Features Dog Soldiers (2002)

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

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!