Lise Mailland's impressions of 'It's a Free World'

It’s a Free World

The film begins with the main subject: recruitment. It takes place in Poland, where Angie (the main character) recruits people for her firm, called ‘Core Force Recruitment’. Then, still in Poland, her boss makes her a proposal which she refuses, but it seems it was a sexual proposition. When she goes back to the UK, he tells her that she has lost her job. She feels angry with him, as she knows it is not her fault: she is not responsible for this situation.

In Poland, she met a Polish worker who manages to come to the UK. During the film, we learn that they are together but for Angie, this situation is not good because she has not enough time to stay with him.

She feels fed up with the way workers are treated: she knows that recruiting agencies don’t care if workers have papers or not. Besides, she is sick of being ordered by her boss and earning very little money that’s why she decides to set up her own business, managing a temporary job agency. She starts this agency with her friend Rose. Her parents disagree with her job because they would like her to have a secure job (she has actually changed her job many times) to take care of her only child. But she does not care about what they said and established her office in her flat and the agency in a friend’s pub.

So workers start to come early in the morning and the meeting point is in the yard behind the pub. If people arrive too late, or if they don’t have the right physique, then they she refuses them. In this way, she is becoming greedier and greedier: she manages to earn money by renting rooms to workers and not giving them their salary at the end of the month. The more she does not pay them, the more she gets into trouble. Her son gets caught up by the Polish workers who only want to get their money. They threaten to hurt her child if she does not pay them. They accuse her of keeping the money she owes them (and they find it) instead of paying the workers.

But, at the same time, she meets an Iranian family: she wants to help them because they are refugees and are afraid of being picked up by the police. Nevertheless, this period lasts very little time. It ends because a lot of her employees are refugees. She always wants to earn more and more money and does not care about how she does it, that’s why her friend Rose disagrees with these choices and they argue. Angie stills continue the business but Rose stops.

Later, she does not hesitate to denounce a refugee’s camp in order to get the camp back and to transform it into a place where her workers can live, without forgetting the work conditions.

At the end of the film, we can see that Angie is in the same situation as at the beginning: the scene is the same, with her own firm ‘Angie’s recruitment’ with a rainbow. The thing which has changed is the fact that she is alone instead of working with Rose and that she is independent, because it is her own business.

Debate: during the debate, we talked about the problems of refugees. We also talked about their living conditions: they are treated as slaves since they have little money and bad flats. The two women belong to Amnesty International, an association which takes care of the refugees and helps them to obtain the papers they need to stay in France.

This debate was interesting because many people talked: students and teachers (for instance the Romanian teacher Mariana who talked about her own experience) and the subject is very topical nowadays. Even if few people are interested in this situation, they should be aware of it.

Unfortunately, to my mind, the debate was too short.

I really enjoyed watching this film. It was interesting because thanks to films like this we can see the world as it really is. Refugees take great risks to reach our countries and their lives are not a bed of roses once they arrive! I find this theme should be spoken about more because the problem is getting worse and people don’t care enough about it.

Will Immigrants always be welcome in the future?

Damien GIRARD

As far as I’m concerned I hope that immigrants will always be welcome in the future because a melting pot always brings great things in a country. But, today some people are worried because they find immigrants very different; the strangers have maybe a different skin colour, maybe another religion, another language or again something else … So people are often scared of what they don’t know, that’s why there are problems of discrimination. Besides, these people think immigrants increase unemployment in their country. To fight this problem, we must learn to be tolerant.

Moreover, many governments try to prevent immigrants from coming into their country because their economic situation is bad.

To finish with this question I hope immigrants will always be welcome but in my opinion it depends principally on the country’s economic situation and on how open-minded citizens are. There is a link between these two elements.


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Damien Ancranaz

In the future the immigration situation won’t continue like today. I think governments (of France, England …) will be stricter about this problem.
In my opinion we should help African and Asian countries so that people stay in their homeland, with their family, their language, their culture. Immigration is good for diversity but too much immigration destroys a nation (like today with Gaza, Israel, India,). So we must help these countries (and all other countries) to encourage their citizens to stay and improve their living conditions; because too much immigration is bad for us (unemployment is an important problem today), bad for their country (governments could lose future workers) and bad for them (in general these workers are poorly paid). Poor people shouldn’t leave their homeland for another country like France or England because I think they can’t be happier in our country than in theirs (like the immigrants in the film It’s a Free World). But all immigration is not bad; political reasons are an important factor of immigration. Some people will always want to improve their civic rights and escape from a country where these basic human rights are not respected.

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Alice Berthier

I think that in the future immigration will be stopped or limited because it’s very difficult for the illegal immigrants to find a job, find accommodation and there is much discrimination against people who live in their new country. Moreover, some countries like England don’t want immigrants to come into their country because they think that immigrants want to steal their jobs ! So, immigrants work in factories or they do poorly paid jobs that the people of the country don’t want to do. To conclude, I think that countries should make efforts to improve the life of immigrants who have settled in their new country.

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Elise Charpin

In my opinion, immigrants will not be welcome in the future because they will contribute to an increase in the unemployment rate. In many cases they don't speak the same language, don't have the right skills and there aren't enough jobs for all of them. Some immigrants show ostensible signs of belonging to a particular religion. So, these immigrants don't want to integrate into society. I think that in the future, the government will take decisions which will be strict and will stop immigrants. At the same time many immigrants suffer from racism and discrimination because of their skin colour.


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Fanny Brugnon

I am in two minds about immigrants: on the one hand, it's a good thing that immigrants should come into our country. They bring about a mixing of cultures and an interesting labour force. On the other hand European countries can no longer provide employment for so many people.
So immigration might increase the number of jobless people. However, it's to be hoped immigrants will manage in the host countries. It would be better if affluent countries helped third world countries. For example, by encouraging fair trade and by making it easier for foreign students to study in France.


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Juliette Gauthier

Immigrants aren't welcome in other countries because most people don't like them. People think immigrants steal work from inhabitants because they accept jobs for less money than, in our case, French people. I think it's ridiculous to talk about ‘immigrants’. We live in the same world so for me foreigners don’t exist! It’s true immigrants aren't welcome in many countries. In the future I think Immigrants will settle in a lot of different countries which will continue to be magnets for them. They think they will find a better job, earn more money and enjoy better living conditions than in their homeland. However when they find a job, they’ll be exploited. It's awful! In the future immigrants will forget their customs and traditions and they'll hide in poor sheds and won’t receive welfare payments...it’s too bad for them! Furthermore it's difficult for them to integrate. They have to learn the language of the country where they live. I dream of a world without borders. I look forward to immigrants living in a flat and not in a shed; I hope they'll be able to find a job where they won’t be exploited. I know it's not possible but there are a lot of charitable organizations which help and encourage them to continue.

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Marion Caillet

Today all countries are very concerned by the problem of immigration. .
Becoming the citizen of a country is very difficult and there are more and more illegal immigrants. They are seeking peace, security and a better life than they enjoyed in their country of origin. In many cases they had to flee war, danger and persecution. Deciding to leave their country was a very difficult choice for them. Once they arrive in their destined country, having been in close contact with death, they then find themselves in danger of being arrested by the police and being sent back to their home country.
Even when they have the right papers, people react very spitefully towards them, and immigration is often a synonym of fear, of distrust, and of a constant need to be vigilant!
For example, a Frenchman or an Englishman usually prefers renting out a flat to another French or English person instead of an immigrant...
The distrust of foreigners has been present for ages and today of course is no exception. Conversely, immigrants with a lot of studies are more well-liked, better welcomed because they will bring a lot to the economy. This is selective immigration.
But times are changing especially with the election of Barack Obama in the US...!


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Linlay Fragnol

We see now many immigrants are discriminated against and that they are not accepted in many countries. And in some extreme cases people think that immigrants are criminals. Just because this is true for a very small minority, these people make a generality. However things might change. In France, there are many advertising campaigns and charitable organizations like Secours Catholique which try to help immigrants, especially if they are asylum seekers. Many high schools like Le Lycée du Granier work on the theme of immigration in general. They try to change things and make people less prejudiced. So I am not as pessimistic as all that! I think in the future that if these efforts continue in many countries, immigrants will be more welcome than today!


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Franck Didierjean

It’s difficult to answer this question but in my opinion it’s important for immigrants to be welcome in the future because after all we are all equal! We have to understand that some people couldn’t stay in their countries because they disagreed with the political situation or because they wanted to find a job or improve their education or their skills. Of course I am disgusted by racism. People have to accept the reality that today there are people with different origins and backgrounds who live and work in France.


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Aurélie Gruaz

It is forbidden for employers to refuse to hire a person because of his nationality.
Even if discrimination is prohibited by law of course it persists. People often discriminate against immigrants, but obviously less than in the past. Let us not forget that countries in The European Union have closed their borders to most immigrants. That’s why there are so many illegal immigrants.
Although governments try to stop immigration for economic reasons, countries accept political refugees who were in danger in their homeland.
I think in the future attitudes will continue to evolve and immigrants may become totally integrated.

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Thomas Ferrier

Today, many governments try to prevent immigrants from coming into their country. They know that immigrants often don’t speak the same language, don’t have the right skills. They explain that unemployment is increasing, but most of the time immigrants do jobs that French people are reluctant to do.
When immigrants arrive in a new country, they face a lot of problems, they have to look for a job and find a place to live. It’s a great pity, because instead of stopping the real criminals, governments try to have illegal immigrants arrested. In these conditions, it’s difficult for them to find work and accommodation and hide from the police. They are often discriminated against and some people prefer giving a job of a flat to French person. In a lot of countries organizations try to help immigrants like Angie and Rose’s company, and I think that with this kind of person things could change and mentalities could change for the better. So immigrants can keep hope for the future!

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