Loach’s second Palme d’Or winner is a coruscating portrait of a contemporary Britain in which the working class continue to suffer deprivation and the added indignity of a Tory government that treats them as scrounging criminals worthy of mistrust and contempt. Focusing around an ailing handyman’s battle to survive after being denied his government health allowance and the relationship he strikes up with a young single mother also being shoved around by the vagaries of the benefits system, I, Daniel Blake is a film of heart, passion and brutal honesty. It’s a savage indictment of Britain that Loach, working with regular scriptwriter Paul Laverty, was forced to come out of retirement to make it. Essential.
Thinking of seeing Loach’s latest? Listen to our review in the October film podcast. Starts at 0.18 seconds…