TRIBUTES AND RETROSPECTIVES
Ken Loach |
© Le Pacte
I, Daniel Blake
Ken Loach
2016 - United Kingdom / France / Belgium - 1h39
Screenings :
sunday 21 - 10:00 am - Centre de congrès - Auditorium - presented by Pierre Chassagnieux - film director
tuesday 23 - 10:00 am - Centre de congrès - Auditorium - presented by Louis Mathieu - enseignant en cinéma
For the first time in his life, Daniel Blake, a 59-year-old English carpenter, is forced to turn to welfare following heart problems. Although his doctor has forbidden him from working, he has been told that he has to look for work or have his benefits cut.During his regular appointments at the job centre, Daniel meets Katie, a single mother of two who has been forced to accept accommodation 450 km from her home town to avoid living in a women's shelter. Caught in the net of the administrative aberrations of modern-day Britain, Daniel and Katie try to help each other out...
Screenwriter Paul Laverty explained that the idea for the film came because “our attention was caught by the systematic smear campaigns waged by the right-wing press against all those on welfare, echoed by a number of hate-filled television programmes that jumped on the bandwagon. The media were revelling in people's distress in an obscene way.” For director Ken Loach, “the starting point was the deliberately cruel attitude of keeping people in poverty and the use of government – the wilful inefficiency of government – as a political weapon. You can feel that the government is trying to send out a message: ‘This is what happens if you don't work. If you don't get a job, you are going to suffer'. There is no other explanation for this attitude. And the anger that this policy provoked in me made me want to make this film.” (Interview with Thierry Gandillot; Les Echos)
Starting in October 2008, the UK authorities considered that many people with health problems or disabilities should work. They received ESA (Employment and Support Allowance) to encourage them to return to work. They also had to take part in a series of interviews concerning their job searches. In May 2010, George Osborne's austerity plan called for the privatisation of as many public services as possible. Those that remained were subject to the same management methods as the private sector: evaluation and competition. This meant that employees' wages depended on reaching targets and how they applied the regulations: social welfare was turned upside-down.
The film caused a surprise at Cannes in 2016, winning Ken Loach his second Palme d'Or.
Starting in October 2008, the UK authorities considered that many people with health problems or disabilities should work. They received ESA (Employment and Support Allowance) to encourage them to return to work. They also had to take part in a series of interviews concerning their job searches. In May 2010, George Osborne's austerity plan called for the privatisation of as many public services as possible. Those that remained were subject to the same management methods as the private sector: evaluation and competition. This meant that employees' wages depended on reaching targets and how they applied the regulations: social welfare was turned upside-down.
The film caused a surprise at Cannes in 2016, winning Ken Loach his second Palme d'Or.
CAST AND CREW
Cast : Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Briana Shann, Dylan McKiernan, Kate Rutter
Screenplay : Paul Laverty
Cinematography : Robbie Ryan
Editing : Jonathan Morris
Music : George Fenton
Production : Sixteen Films, Why Not Productions, Wild Bunch
French distributor : Le Pacte