There were plenty of movies at this year’s Cannes Film Festival that seemed like viable options for the Palme d’Or — Andrea Arnold‘s “American Honey“; Jim Jarmusch‘s “Paterson“; Maren Ade‘s “Toni Erdmann” — but the George Miller-led jury surprisingly went with Ken Loach‘s “I, Daniel Blake.” The movie wasn’t universally acclaimed on the Croisette (though our critic quite liked the “touching film“) but nonetheless it walked away with the big prize, and that puts a nice shine on the picture as it heads to theaters.
Featuring a cast of mostly unknown names — Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Dylan McKiernan, Briana Shann, Kate Rutter, Sharon Percy, Kema Sikazwe — the story follows the titular character as he navigates the dehumanizing social welfare system, and strikes up a friendship with a single mother. Here’s the official synopsis:
Daniel Blake (59) has worked as a joiner most of his life in Newcastle. Now, for the first time ever, he needs help from the State. He crosses paths with 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 no-man’s land, caught on the barbed wire of welfare bureaucracy as played out against the rhetoric of ‘striver and skiver’ in modern-day Britain.
“I, Daniel Blake” opens in the U.K. on October 21st, and will be released in the U.S. by Sundance Selects.
