You know with a Ken Loach credit that you will be challenged and his observations are often so much stronger than mere convoluted or contrived fictions.
Daniel Blake (David John) is middle-aged widower recovering from a serious heart attack, whose GP has told him to refrain from returning to his work as a carpenter.
In 'the system' social services through their use of a 'health care professional' telephonist determine, after a bizarre and Kafkaesque unseen opening sequence to the film, that Dan is fit for work. Welcome to austerity Britain!
This seriously unwell man has his welfare claim turned down and pending his efforts to secure an appeal he must seek unemployment benefit which in turn means having to spend no less than 35 hours per week actively seeking a job, which he knows he can't accept!
Daniel crosses paths at the Job Centre with single mum of two, Katie (Hayley Squires) who is having her own troubles being new to the city, which sparks an unexpected and platonic friendship between people who simply share a sense of common decency, aspiration and being in a tough spot. While there is the expected polemical discourse about hardship and the futile endeavour to escape the benefits trap, this is also a story of neighbourliness and kindness (set in Newcastle and highlighting some good old fashioned humour and values).
Loach is on top form (as is his long time screenwriter and collaborator Paul Laverty) with this visceral and damning observation of the state's wilful and systematic contempt for mass unemployment and the use of the labyrinthine benefits system as a means of social control and economic befuddlement for the dispossessed. Those unfortunate to be suffering genuine need and hardship must engage with powerful unbending automatons at the benefits office – almost a zombie movie for social realism!
A scene set in and around a local food bank, portrays such a shockingly normal atmosphere that Katie's reaction only serves to heighten the sense of drama.
The awfulness of real poverty in 21st century Britain and the growing desperation of these people of good character we have come to know is revealed to show how their fundamental dignity and normal behaviour of good people shocks us as desperate times lead to desperate measures.
In terms of cast we have David John (a well-known Geordie comedian) who brings such humanity and pathos to the eponymous hero. Hayley Squires is excellent as Katie and the ensemble cast as ever with Loach are keeping it real; the ladies running the food bank are indeed the real women who run the food bank, and insights into the goings on at the benefits office are taken from real life 'whistleblowers' who have shared their experiences of things one would not believe could happen and only seem absurd!
I, Daniel Blake won the Palme d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival and was the Audience Award winner at the San Sebastián International Film Festival
Not an easy watch, but definitely full value for the visit.