I, Daniel Blake Review

I, Daniel Blake (15)

Starring: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires

Director: Ken Loach

Ken Loach produces yet another incredibly thought provoking film with I, Daniel Blake, which casts a hugely critical eye over the benefits system in the United Kingdom.

The film, which focuses on a joiner from Newcastle upon Tyne who finds himself unemployed and unable to work, provides a scathing outlook on the state and those in poverty. Blake, who has a heart attack, finds frustration in his inability to come to terms with the rigorous and harsh procedures in his attempts to obtain Employment and Support Allowance.

After being knocked back by the Job Centre, his only option is to go on Job Seekers Allowance, waiting for his appeal to be assessed. In this time, he meets Katie, a young single mother from London, who with her two young children moves to the North East after being offered a house from her local council authority. Daniel and Katie form a strong bond and the stereotypical Geordie friendlessness is portrayed in a poignant and poetic way as Katie struggles to make ends meet, buying necessities such as food, toiletries and school uniform for her kids.

Perhaps the most harrowing scene of the film is when Katie is forced to have to use a food bank to provide for her family, in which she ravishes a can of food after not eating for so long. Despite the dramatics, the scene is all too familiar with many working class towns around the country, with thousands of people now having to resort to abhorrent means, just to stay afloat.

The film comes to a head after Blake decides to spray graffiti outside the Job Centre in order to get his point across, in a picture that clearly outlines Loach’s desire to highlight how those on benefits are not listened to and cast aside as social pariahs. The politically charged message strikes a note, with the sense a raw belief that this could be someone living at the bottom of your street. It has already struck a chord with many left-wing politicians in Parliament, including SNP member Mhairi Black, who went on to deliver a five-minute speech in Holyrood and urged members of the house to go and see the film.

Despite being panned as “propaganda” by many, Ken Loach has produced something truly moving and heartfelt, with a sense of something that is not only close to home, but raises so many questions about welfare. Having watched the picture at Queen’s Film Theatre in Belfast, I can assure you there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. If you don’t go and see anything else this year, make sure you at least see I,Daniel Blake.