Riff-Raff
Ken Loach
© Diaphana
London, at the end of Margaret Thatcher's period of rule. Steevie, a young Scotsman just out of prison, is working on a building site, cash in hand. He and his fellow workers clash with their boss, who has little regard for working conditions. In the squat he shares with his colleagues, Steevie discovers a world of camaraderie where everyone supports each other. One day he meets Susan, a lost young woman who dreams of becoming a singer. Despite life's obstacles and setbacks, the two
end up falling in love.
end up falling in love.
With : Robert Carlyle, Emer McCourt, Jim R. Coleman, George Moss, Ricky Tomlinson
Screenplay : Bill Jesse
Image : Barry Ackroyd
Editing : Jonathan Morris
Music : Stewart Copeland
Screenplay : Bill Jesse
Image : Barry Ackroyd
Editing : Jonathan Morris
Music : Stewart Copeland
Production : Parallax Pictures, Channel Four Films
Distribution: Diaphana
Distribution: Diaphana
This story of camaraderie between London labourers was both scripted (Bill Jesse) and acted (Robert Carlyle, Ricky Tomlinson) by people with first-hand experience of the building industry. The film was a milestone for Loach, ushering in both the later part of his career – making him one of Britain's most prolific directors – and introducing now-familiar working methods, such as hiding scripts from actors so that their surprise at unexpected events is genuine. The central plot, about the relationship between an itinerant Glaswegian (Carlyle) and an aspiring singer (Emer McCourt), provides an excellent dramatic foreground for a beautifully observed and often very funny study of working-class solidarity in the face of distant and unsympathetic management. Ken Loach worked with Robert Carlyle again in Carla's Song, where Carlyle plays a Glaswegian bus driver who falls in love with a Nicaraguan exile.