Now that veteran British filmmaker Ken Loach is 80 years old he keeps threatening that his latest movie will also be his last. We hope not as with I Daniel Blake he is not just back on form, but this is one of his best ever, born out by winning him his second Palme D’Or at Cannes Film Festival, and echoed at Miami‘s Gem Festival where queerguru previewed it and where it was given the Audience Award.
A fervent socialist all his life, Loach has never been afraid to make his films a commentary on what he sees as injustice for any downtrodden sections of society, and this latest gentle drama has exactly that in its sights. It is the tale of 59 year old carpenter Daniel Blake (Dave Johns) living in the economically depressed Newcastle in the U.K.’s North East. Daniel has just recovered from a heart attack and as his condition will not allow him to return to work he applies for welfare benefits which he has paid into all his working life, and which he is fully entitled too.
Well that’s what he (and we) think, but he quickly comes across a confusing bureaucratic system that the staff at the Government Agency insist on interpreting dogmatically wth the result that ends up with his Support Allowance being denied. Faced with having no income at all, Blake is told he must apply for unemployment benefit instead, but to be successful in achieving that he must actively seek work (even though he is physically unfit) and be able to fill in countless online forms, even though he has never turned on a computer in his life.
It is one of his frustrating visits to be demeaned by the obstructive and patronizing staff that he comes to the rescue of Katie (Hayley Squires) a young single mother who is at the receiving end of some particular brusque treatment herself after she has demanded help from the Agency staff. Daniel befriends Katie and her two young children, and when he discovers that she has even less money than him, he steps up and buys them food, gives them money to turn the electricity back on and starts repairing things around the rather dilapidated flat that they have just been allocated.
The kindness they show each other in this most unusual and innocent relationship vastly contrasts with the complete lack of respect, sympathy or understanding from the Agency staff. When questioned they insist that all matters regarding the claims must be referred back to ‘the decision maker’ an illusive figure that they are never allowed direct access too. When this anonymous authority rules against them, then they must start appealing in the same Kafkaesque manner they put their original claims.
Both Daniel and Katie are proud human beings and when they have been officially denied all their claims they resort to the only thing they can do. Daniel strips his flat bare and sells off everything, whilst Katie ends up selling her body for sex.
This heartbreaking tale of how official insouciance destroys every semblance of dignity and self-respect from the very people they are paid to serve and help, unfolds at a quiet gentle pace. Loach has Daniel’s anger simmering on the boil until almost the end, and the restraint shown makes us focus more on the sheer scope of the insane injustice itself. Both Johns and Squires give powerful understated performances that are so pitch perfect and make their characters so completely believable. As is the script by Loach’s usual screenwriter, Paul Laverty.
Despite some of it’s tough dialect which may make the going tough (on the ears at least) I Daniel Blake may be a quintessential British film, but its one that will resound globally, especially where bureaucracy is administered to help depress the very people it is meant to serve.
