#5 - RIFF RAFF (1991)
Directed by - Ken Loack (UK)
Any Ken Loach could have made this list (Land or Freedom, Kes or Poor Cow come to mind.) Despite Riff Raff not being one of the British social realist director's most famous films, it is certainly underrated. It's quite a gem.
Set during the latter part of the Margaret Thatcher years, in which more or less the working class man in Britain was absolutely crushed in mind, body and soul, the film also links directly crime and work in the form of its leading Glaswegian, recently released from jail, who is determined to start life anew. He does so by moving to London and landing a job in a construction site. It is relevant to see a further class divide in the fact that he is working on turning a derelict hospital into a luxury apartment complex. It's equally as interesting to note that the workers are not exactly legally contracted.
Throughout the film, we see various elements often unexplored by cinema, which span from pension, unions and even health and safety on the workplace. The building site is truly as dangerous as a war-field. The fact these things are exposed in Riff Raff, which should be essentially the story of a love affair between a construction worker and a so-so nightclub singer, shows the great sensibility that Loach has for the film. Even more rewarding is that the film's harshness and sweetness, drama and humour are just as realistic as its subject matter. Life, of course, is after all a mixture of all those things too.