I, Daniel Blake (2016)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

I, Daniel Blake (2016) – K. Loach

As anyone who has ever contended with governmental bureaucracy (which is to say everyone) can attest, it sucks.  But never more so than for the people least equipped to deal with it.  In this film, director Ken Loach shows us one man’s (Kafka-esque) struggle in a straightforward realist way – the facts speak for themselves, no comedy allowed (despite the fact that star Dave Johns is a British comedian).  Loach’s films have always championed the working class and the down-and-out and that hasn’t changed here – but at age 79, he has found a way to reduce the polemics and just show the pain (and the human dignity it impinges upon).  Daniel Blake, a carpenter, has had a heart attack and his doctors forbid him from working – so he goes on what we would call “disability” payments here in Australia (the UK system seems similar).  But for some reason, his case is re-evaluated and he is found “fit for work” by a telephone assessor, a judgment which he tries to appeal by necessity, given his doctors’ verdict.  While waiting for appeal, in order to keep any payments at all, he is encouraged to apply for the “jobseeker’s allowance”, which comes with an array of strings attached – 35 hours per week spent seeking work, a condescending CV workshop, and other indignities.  Blake dutifully complies (but not without some sarcastic retorts, not quite sotto voce) despite the fact that he can’t really take any job he finds.  A subplot involves a young single mother (Hayley Squires), befriended by Blake, who is relocated to Newcastle (where the film takes place) for public housing but isn’t given any welfare because she was late for an appointment (due to getting on the wrong bus).  Her experience seems even more calamitous and desperate than Blake’s.  Loach does resort to some pretty dramatic examples to show us how the system fails ordinary people -- and how those who work within it can become hard-hearted in order to manage programs that are under-resourced, “digital by default”, and ideological targets for right-wing politicians to cut.  A quick Google search for “Centrelink problems” here in Australia results immediately in the following quote from our national news desk: “The Government knew Centrelink's debt recovery program would incorrectly tell clients they owed money if human oversight was reduced, but continued to do so in a bid to cut costs.” Equally terrifying.  Films such as this can win sympathy (the film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes) but will the politicians listen?  Every vote counts.