Mark McCallum

I, Daniel Blake [2016] SBSonDemand On a recommemdation from @rachelthe painter, I queued this Palm D'Or 2016 winner, to stream going in completely blind... Widowed carpenter Daniel Blake (Geordie stand-up Dave Johns) finds himself trapped in Newcastle’s benefits bureaucracy as his heart condition means he can neither take a job nor claim Jobseekers’ Allowance. As he struggles to maintain his dignity, he befriends single mother Katie (Hayley Squires). Ken Loach (Director) came out of retirement to make this — a profound sigh of a survey of today’s marginalised and their relationship with the state. Sad! Daniel, a widower unable to work thanks to a heart condition, but just well enough to not seem seriously ill. Falling between the twin poles of disability support and Jobseekers’ Allowance, he faces a nightmare of forms, CV courses and hold music (lasting longer than a football match). It’s all totally authentic. Many players pass as real worldly downtrodden. We are well served by the lead, with Johns nailing one of the hardest things for an actor — genuine decency without putting the audience to sleep. Daniel wants to work — he gets on his bike, but his benefits advisors dismiss his hand-written CV and failure to get receipts from the foremen he delivers it to with cold bureaucratic indifference. A scene where Dan struggles with a mouse is typical — funny, but also deeply depressing. He’s highly skilled, but destined for the scrapheap through no fault of his own. Katie, spikily played by Squires, finds herself in the most upsetting scenes, be it going hungry to feed her kids, desperately gobbling baked bean juice in a food bank, or finding work in the most degrading ways. Her interlocking experiences with Daniel deliver a message about the cruelty of benefit reform more forcefully than any bar chart from the government. Their burgeoning friendship is a great portrait of solidarity. This film scans the contemporary landscape, and instead of a firebrand approach of stereotype, delivers a film of immense sadness. How far off is anyone really from such grim prospects? 7.5 / 10