2016 Cannes Critics’ Panel Day 3: Ken Loach Cares About the Welfare of “I, Daniel Blake”

He has promoted, and as of late, defended the inclusion of this filmmaker, and with I, Daniel Blake – Thierry Frémaux proves that he has done so with good reason. Unlike say the output of an Andrea Arnold, I’m sure we’re more than a few critics guilty of having trepidations and reservations about the future output of pioneering Kitchen Sink auteur Ken Loach. Looks like the critic elite are down with this “blunt, dignified and brutally moving” (Peter Bradshaw for The Guardian) new picture. With three Jury Prize winning films under his belt (90’s Hidden Agenda, 93’s Raining Stones and 2012’s The Angels’ Share) and winner of the Palme d’Or in 2006 with The Wind That Shakes the Barley, he began his long affair with Cannes in 1970 with the Critics Week inclusion of Kes.

Produced by long time partner Rebecca O’Brien and starring Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Briana Shann and Dylan McKiernan, this focuses on Daniel Blake, 59, who has worked as a joiner most of his life in the North East of England and needs help from the State for the first time ever following an illness. He crosses paths with a single mother Katie and her two young children, Daisy and Dylan. Katie’s only chance to escape a one roomed homeless hostel in London is to accept a flat some 300 miles away. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman describes how compelling characters in his final note, “the reason it’s the rare political drama that touches the soul —  is that we believe, completely, in these people standing in front of us, as Ken Loach and the actors have imagined them. And when the movie ends, we feel like we won’t forget them.”

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