I, Daniel Blake

Ken Loach's Palme d'Or-winning film is celebrated by critics, audiences and politicians alike.

Daniel Blake (Dave Johns) has worked as a joiner most of his life in Newcastle upon Tyne. Now, for the first time, he needs help from the State. He crosses paths with a single mother Katie and her two young children, Daisy and Dylan. Katie’s only chance to escape a one-roomed homeless hostel in London has been to accept a flat in a city she doesn’t know, some 300 miles away. Daniel and Katie find themselves in a "no-man’s land", caught on the barbed wire of welfare bureaucracy.

Curator's Note

In 2014, Ken Loach announced he was retiring from narrative filmmaking, but it's said that the election of a Conservative government the following year reignited his career.

I, Daniel Blake premiered at the 69th Cannes Film Festival where it received the coveted Palme d'Or, making Ken Loach one of only two record-breaking directors to receive the award twice.

After the rousing film's release, the conservative Prime Minister Theresa May was advised by the opposition leader on the Parliament floor to watch the film.

We'd like to extend that suggestion more broadly.

– Reece Goodwin, Curator (Film & TV)