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Loach’s Irish political drama The Wind that Shakes the Barley |
Audiences are being left out of the picture
‘Unless it has gangsters or Hugh Grant, it simply will not get a decent release’ – Ken Loach
FILMMAKER Ken Loach believes audiences flocking to Camden’s cinemas are being done a disservice by film distributors who look for the lowest common denominator to get bums on seats.
Mr Loach, who lives in Parliament Hill Fields, recently handed over his latest film It’s A Free World to be premiered on Channel 4.
The film tells the story of a woman who sets up a work agency and preys on illegal immigrants to provide cheap labour on Britain’s building sites and factories. The gritty film lifts the lid on exploitation, and the main character’s motivation to get-rich-quick at the expense of others.
His decision to offer it to terrestrial TV came after deciding the best way to get the film to as wider an audience as possible was to avoid a mainstream distribution deal.
He said: “With British film, unless it has costumes, gangsters or Hugh Grant, it simply will not get a decent release.”
And this means an audience of people who are directly affected by the exploitation of immigrants in Britain will miss out.
He said: “From January, more than 100 French cinemas will screen the film. This is repeated across Europe – German and Italian multiplexes will also be showing the film. But the British audience it was aimed at will not be queuing at the box office to see it.”
Mr Loach, who has built a formidable reputation over the years for his unique style of filmmaking, which often uses unknown actors working with pared down scripts, has become a patron of the independent cinema The Phoenix, in East Finchley.
It was here his film focusing on gang masters and illegal immigrants was previewed on the big screen for the first time last week in London.
Mr Loach has enjoyed successes in the cinema in the past. The films that enjoyed strong box office returns include the 2006 Irish political drama The Wind That Shakes The Barley, and the lauded 1995 Spanish civil war film Land And Freedom.
But he also has a reputation for television: his drama Cathy Come Home in 1966 lifted the lid on homelessness and prompted changes in government policy.
He said: “Multiplexes are dismal places, where it is as much about eating a bucket of popcorn as watching a film.”
But he would like cinema-goers to experience his hard-hitting drama in a theatre.
He said: “It is a much stronger experience in a proper cinema.” |
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