I, Daniel Blake

A FILM BY Ken Loach

“I, Daniel Blake” is one of Loach’s finest films, a drama of tender devastation that tells its story with an unblinking neorealist simplicity that goes right back to the plainspoken purity of Vittorio De Sica.

- Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Its performances — from the comedian Dave Johns, who portrays Daniel, down to the tiniest role — are so fine-tuned that you often feel you are watching a Frederick Wiseman documentary.

- Stephen Holden, The NY Times

Loach is nothing if not a humanist, one who sees what should unite us all in times of duress, and this is arguably one of his best and most accessible movies to date.

- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Synopsis

A 59-year-old carpenter recovering from a heart attack befriends a single mother and her two kids as they battle the impersonal, bureaucratic forces of the benefits system in order to receive Employment and Support Allowance. British master Ken Loach won his second Palme d’Or at Cannes for this timely drama with equal amounts of humor, warmth and despair.