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WHAT ABOUT THE WORKERS?
Ken Loach returns to the theme of exploitation in his latest film, It’s A Free World
Back at the turn of the new millennium, director Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty made Bread And Roses, which centred vividly on the exploitation of Latino workers,
legal and illegal, in Los Angeles.
It’s A Free World, their latest collaboration - and seventh feature
together - could almost be described as a companion piece but this time round is firmly set on native soil.
“Bread And Roses was,” says Loach,
“about Mexican immigrants into the US. Paul
and I had talked about returning to the subject
for some time; that is, the theme of people crossing countries, even continents, to get work.
“We thought we’d do one this time about people
who come to work here in the UK. What was interesting to us was not simply to do a story about people being exploited – which, in a way, people will know about even if it isn’t
in our face all the time – but rather try and look at the mentality of the people who actually do the exploiting.
“We examine someone of this generation, Angie (newcomer Kierston Wareing), who sees nothing wrong with doing the toughest deals she can regardless of the consequences for the
people involved because that’s the way
the world is.”
Photo: Kierston Wareing as Angie and Colin Caughlin as her father Geoff in It’s A Free World
continued on page 24
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