It’s a Free World
Grade: A-

Veteran British director Ken Loach (The Wind That Shakes the Barley) delivers a tense and absorbing drama about immigrant labor in London. Newcomer Kierston Wareing is positively brilliant as a headstrong entrepreneur who compromises her workers, friends and family with her greedy recruitment practices. Frequent Loach collaborator Paul Laverty won top screenplay honors at last year’s Venice Film Festival.

Screens at the Portland International Film Festival in the Portland Art Museum’s Whitsell Auditorium on February 10 at 4:45 p.m. & February 13 at 9 p.m.