CAPSULE: I, Daniel Blake (2016, Dir. Ken Loach)

Ken Loach’s surprise win at Cannes this year probably shouldn’t have been that surprising in retrospect. They love a hard-up social drama on La Croisette - see the Dardennes, Mike Leigh and Loach himself (though for an atypical period piece). But I, Daniel Blake stands out amongst the intensity of these other wallowers in that its view of the underclasses, at least in his more recent output, is pushing well into the personable. And those who can afford cinema tickets may well recognise themselves.

Loach’s films, like those of the Dardennes, are being impacted by bracket creep. His characters are comparably better off than those he focused on in the 60s and 70s, but their treatment by the powers that be is the same – even if this is death by a thousand bureaucratic cuts.

The Daniel Blake of the film’s title is a conscientious Geordie (played with everyman nuance by Dave Johns), who’s recently found himself out of work due to a bad ticker. His therapist, his GP and his surgeon have all warned him off work but the government have refused his disability allowance. While he’s got that up for review, he’s been told to get on jobseekers allowance. In the middle of navigating that head-to-wall, table-flipping frustration fest, Daniel comes to the aid of Katie (Hayley Squires), another “client” of the job centre. He gradually takes her and her two young kids under his wing.

With its roundly positive view of “the poor”, I, Daniel Blake presents a reality that we are seldom confronted with on the big screen: people under the poverty line who actually look, feel and act like everyone else. Indeed, Daniel’s ability to hide his own predicament whilst caring for Katie underlines the fact that capitalism’s underclass mingles frequently with its more privileged adherents. The absence of mental illness, drug addiction, domestic violence, and all the other markers usually used to signify those struggling in unemployment (and, to be honest, the reason the benefits sector’s maze of rules are in place), adds a level of identification that should give most of us pause. It is not as if we don’t already know this, but the system isn’t working like it should.

Loach’s takedown, though hobbled by its best “worse case scenario” viewpoint, should rile up his audience. I, Daniel Blake is a moving finger to government apathy and social distance. It is also a harbinger that situations like these will begin to be felt further and further up the food chain. We should all watch our backs.

Or, better yet, we should all watch each other’s.

★★★☆

Trailer: