Ladybird, ladybird

A single mother struggles against the British social service system and her own troubled past in director Ken Loach’s brutally realistic drama. Coming from a background of abuse and poverty, the hardened Maggie (Crissy Rock) has already suffered through a series of painful romances when she falls for the caring Jorge (Vladimir Vega) and they begin a loving but turbulent relationship. Their situation takes a turn for the worse when Maggie becomes pregnant, her troubled past leaving her branded an unfit mother by the government with four other children already in foster care. Determined to keep their child, Maggie and Jorge begin a difficult fight against government bureaucracy, made all the more difficult by Maggie’s volatile temperament. This is the story of a woman whose fierce maternal instincts are not enough to placate a society that places conformity over uncontrolled and unconditional love.