"Food, warmth and a roof over our heads have been our most basic needs since the dawn of time": Paul Laverty, long-time collaborator of Ken Loach, once again wrote the screenplay for this latest film, born of the two men's dismay at the calculated cruelty of the bureaucratic system. The anger provoked by the deliberate use of poverty for political ends drove the director to get out his camera once again, not long after wrapping up Jimmy’s Hall in 2014.
Between the character of Katie (Hayley Squires), a young single mum with two kids, and that of Daniel Blake (Dave Johns), a 50-something widowed joiner, there's a sense of solidarity that's as striking as it's authentic, set against the grim background of the dole office. In his account of the occasionally comic fixes into which this unlikely couple get themselves – in a life rocked to the core by the insecurity of joblessness – Ken Loach sets out, as usual, to capture the vulnerability of the working classes.
