WHO’S IN IT?
Dave Johns (Time Gentlemen Please), Hayley Squires (A Royal Night Out), Dylan McKiernan (film debut), Briana Shann (film debut), Micky McGregor (Wolfblood), Sharon Percy (School for Seduction), Julie Nicholson (Dolls)
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Ken Loach (The Wind That Shakes The Barley), director; Paul Laverty (Jimmy’s Hall), writer; Rebecca O’Brien (Sweet Sixteen), producer; George Fenton (Groundhog Day), composer; Robbie Ryan (Philomena), cinematographer; Jonathan Morris (Ae Fond Kiss…), editor
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Daniel Blake (Johns), a 59-year-old carpenter living in Newcastle, has a heart attack and finds himself caught in the bureaucracy of the benefits system, if he is to keep everything without working. He soon crosses paths with Katie (Squires), a single mother with two young children who has been forced to move from a homeless shelter in London, and take up residence in a flat 300 miles from home. Both of them struggle with the realities of poverty and the red tape that is preventing them from achieving a better life…
IN ONE SENTENCE, WHY SHOULD YOU BE EXCITED?
Ken Loach’s Palme D’Or winner from this year’s Cannes Film Festival is a fearless and devastating examination of the broken benefits system that is worryingly crippling the lives of many humble citizens in this country today.
