Fish Tank poster textual analysis

The film Fish Tank is a British social realism film directed by Andrea Arnold starring Kate Jarvis as Mia, a 15 year old, working class girl who lives on a council estate with her single mother and sister and dreams of becoming a dancer. Like most social realism films, the narrative focusses around the problems and emotions of the protagonist who is trying the find their way in and oppressed society. This is evident through visual codes in the poster such as the image of birds flying outside the window. Birds have connotations of freedom and hope, they are able to fly openly where they choose without limitations which is something Mia aspires to do, signified by her longing stare out of the window into the distance. The typical social realist film focusses of the 'chav' stereotype, visual codes allow us to determine that Fish Tank will too. Although not over the top, Mia sports a gold necklace, and iconic signifier of the 'chav' who is usually sporting heavy amounts of gold jewellery for fashion. Mia stares outside the window of which is presumably her home, where we see a typical british council housing estate such as ugly tower blocks and rural housing. This suggests that Mia too lives in council housing on a council estate, another stereotypical representation.