Fish tank.

Fish tank is a social realism film targeted at a Niche audience. This film was constructed to give a clear representation of the realism of this particular society, what the culture is like and what troubles the individuals face. As the film starts, before we see anything we can already hear the sound of traffic, sirens and the outdoors. To the trained ear it would be easily identifiable to recognize this as a social realism film just from this as usually in other genres to start off there is some form of music, digetic or non digetic. Shortly after this we see Mia who happens to be the main character. In many social realism films the directors use unseen actors as it helps add to the realism of the film. To add to this many of the actors in Fish tank had never acted before, so their untrained acting also has that sense of naturalness too it which you couldn't find in Hollywood films for example. In social realist films the main goal is obviously to make it as real as possible, and to portray a clear picture of that society. In Fish tank there are a series of things which help achieve that. The English accent, slang and swearing. The gritty accent and the use of foul language in Fish tank helps express the idea of poverty in that area, even what they are wearing adds to that. The raggy cheap track suits and vests which a lot of them seems to wear sends us a message of no money and little motivation to look good. Another thing which helps achieve this gritty social realist style is the use of natural lighting and hand held cameras. Being a low budget film it works perfectly in social realist films as it actually relates to how real life is. As far as natural lighting is concerned you wouldn't have hard and dark lighting effects in normal day to day life, so this natural lighting really helps portray them as real people with normal things happening, relating to use as an audience as we also live in the real world. The hand held camera on the other hand makes us feel like we are there. There is a scene where we see Mia walking quite fast and a hand held camera is following her. It just adds to the realism of the scene instead of a expensive shot where it wouldn't connect with the audience as much as a hand held shot where the screen is all shaky would. Her walk says something too. Her walk is fast and rushed, like she has somewhere to be, or even running away from something. But in reality she has nowhere to go and is just trapped in this place.

In the film there are quite a few scenes of the female gaze, contrary to the male gaze in a lot of films. We can say this female gaze makes her the sole focus even more as throughout the film the camera is either through her eyes, or on her. Seeing this female gaze we learn about her personality. Learning that  she does feel attraction towards men. The fact that the director of fish tank is female shows her views and how she wanted to turn a nice twist on what gaze is represented. Another thing to point out about Mia is that she takes after her mother. Her mum is dressed like a tart and speaks uneducated, with swearing and cursing. She is not an appropriate role model for her daughters. As a result of this Mia looked up to her and took after her. They both share a similar attitude of hate and anger. Mia's younger sister is on the verge of becoming the same too, as a result of bad parenting Mia's little sister looks up to her mum and Mia and swears just the same, even though she looks eight years old. This example is a realistic portrayal of what this society is like, how everyone takes after each other with this broken language of swearing, the cheap clothes and horrible attitudes, and how its just on a continuous cycle through generations. Relating back to the idea of Mia being somewhat trapped in this place throughout the film we also see a horse on a chain. Mia and this horse seem to connect throughout as they are both in similar situations. They are both trapped with no clear way of getting out. Mia feels sorry for the horse and when it goes she starts to cry. This is the only time in the film where we see proper emotion come from her, telling us that there is more to her behind the strong and angry front she puts on.