Smash the state! Britain is broken. We’re all going to hell in a handcart. No, these aren’t the words of an outspoken tabloid columnist but the left-wing filmmaker Ken Loach and his trusty screenwriting accomplice, Paul Laverty.
Against the odds, Loach was handed his second Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for I, Daniel Blake, an examination of a lovable carpenter from northern England who is trapped – Josef K-style – within a web of needless bureaucracy in his attempts to secure disability benefits. His story is entwined with that of a young mother who’s been displaced from London due to a new unfriendly, unhelpful council housing scheme. She, too, must fight to make a crust. Watch the trailer above and let us know your thoughts @LWLies.
I, Daniel Blake opens in UK cinemas on 21 October.
Published 15 Jun 2016
Ken Loach returns to Cannes with a ranty anti-government, anti-bureaucracy screed. Not all of it lands.
All the heart and humour of a mainstream comedy-drama, with none of the tedious predictability.
By Tom Bond
Miguel Gomes, Jacques Audiard and others are capturing a shifting continental mood.