Fish Tank Genre

How typical is your chosen text to its genre?

Fish Tank is typical to the social realist genre and displays a realistic, hard look at contemporary Britain. The film is typical to the genre as we see typical conventions belonging to the genre of social realism. The conventions could be categorised by; character roles, narrative themes, technical conventions and miss en scene/iconography. A common narrative theme is a representation of the under class life and their desires to create a better life for themselves. This is evident in the narrative when Mia breaks into an empty flat to practice her dance. We see her force to door open and close it behind her before she puts her belongings down, switches on the CD player and practice her routine. We see that her dream is to dance and by dancing she can get herself out of the run down environment that she's lives in. She has to practice behind closed doors as dancing is usually seen as a feminine quality and she is only good at being masculine. This is very typical to the social realist genre as she see's that her own ambitions can get herself out of a bad situation, which in this case is her environment. The shallow depth of field and use of natural lighting in the tower block is also a typical genre convention. This is evidenced in the narrative when she breaks into the flat and stares out the window and we see a long shot at her mother crossing the road in the area they live in. By looking out the window it gives the audience an indication to her surroundings and by using a shallow depth of field it allows us to see things as Mia would, allowing the audience to empathise with her. This is almost like the human eye as when we look at things far away, the closer things are in focus rather than blurred. The medium reflects the films concept of representing the lives of people going through hardship and by looking out of the window into the distance it almost mirrors the title and could have connotations of the 'fish tank' that she is trapped in. The typical protagonist in social realist films are usually a working class hero that strives for an improved life than the circumstance they find themselves in at the beginning of the narrative. Mia doesn't typically fit into this role.