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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 24 december 2016
Loach’s ‘I, Daniel Blake’ emerges as a timely rallying cry

JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — British di-
rector Ken Loach has for 50
years been making lauded
dramas rich in social re-
alism that give dignity to
the dispossessed. But his “I,
Daniel Blake,” which won
the Cannes Film Festival’s
Palme d’Or, has power-
fully struck a nerve, tapping
into the same working-class
frustrations that are upend-
ing politics in Europe and
the U.S.
The film, which opens in lim-
ited release in North Ameri-
ca on Friday, has emerged
as a kind of rallying cry,
part film and part move-
ment. It’s about a man —
a cheery, blue-collar bloke
(Dave Johns) — who, after
a heart attack, is told by
his doctor he’s too sick to
work. But his application
for government assistance
is rejected, leading him In this Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2016 file photo, director Ken Loach, left, and leader of Britain’s Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, pose together
down a path both tender for photographers upon their arrival at the premiere of the film “I, Daniel Blake” in London. Associated Press
and tragic.
In Britain, “I, Daniel Blake” rage felt by working class little has changed for the ple into good people and closed down. The work was
has been the biggest box- people on both sides of the director, whose working- bad people, but just ob- sent to where the workforce
office hit of the 80-year-old Atlantic, liberal and conser- class portraits like “Kes,” serve the reality of the situ- was more vulnerable. Taxes
director’s career. Labour vative. ‘’Cathy Come Home” and ation.” have been lifted for the
Party leader Jeremy Cor- “There is a great sense of: “The Wind That Shakes the In a sense, it’s less that wealthier people and cor-
byn urged Prime Minster We’re being cheated. Peo- Barley” are considered Loach has made a film that porations. This produced
Theresa May to see the ple don’t know exactly how among the greatest British suits the times, and more not only mass unemploy-
film . Screenings were or- they’re being cheated but films. He and screenwriter that the sociopolitical issues ment but mass alienation.”
ganized across the country they know there’s some- Paul Laverty first dive into he’s long documented and Following his previous film,
to urge reforms to Britain’s thing wrong,” Loach said in research. He casts largely decried about have come 2014’s “Jimmy’s Hall,”
benefits system, which has an interview by phone from nonprofessional actors. to the surface. Loach had suggested he
come under fire for sanc- London. And they rehearse. “This isn’t an accident. This was retiring from filmmak-
tions that critics say keep “It relates to the Trump vic- “What we try to do is to fol- is the consequence,” he ing. But that didn’t last long.
support services from the tory. It relates to (the U.K.’s) low the logic of the people said of the U.S. election. “I just thought I can’t get
needy. The film’s tale, sim- vote to leave Europe. It re- and enjoy their comedy as “It’s the consequence of around the course again,”
ply and straightforwardly lates to the rise of the far much as anything else,” 40, 50 years of neo-liberal- said Loach, chuckling. “But
told, rang true for many . right in Europe.” said Loach. “The process of ism that began with Rea- then you get back and you
Its title was even beamed Politics have long gone making it is not about the gan and Thatcher and the start again.
onto the walls of Parlia- hand-in-hand with Loach, research or the polemic at economists they looked up You hear so many stories.
ment. 80, a proud socialist who all. It’s entirely about who to and the prioritization of Every story was extraordi-
For Loach, the groundswell has been called “the Ber- is this person and how do the interests of big capital, nary. So we thought we
around “I, Daniel Blake” nie Sanders of social-realis- they respond in this situa- the big multi-national cor- should have a go, you
points to the widespread tic cinema.” In many ways tion? And to not turn peo- porations. Industries were know?”q

‘Doonesbury’ creator designs

poster for New York event

SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. (AP) Zonker and Uncle Duke has mountain scene with birds
— “Doonesbury” cartoonist designed the poster for the in flight and a moose.
Garry Trudeau (troo-DOH’) 2017 Saranac Lake Winter Trudeau, who was raised
has once again designed Carnival , which runs from in the village of Saranac
the poster for the annual Feb. 3 through Feb. 12. Lake, has designed the
winter carnival in his child- This year’s theme is “Adiron- posters since 2012 to ben-
hood hometown in New dack Wildlife.” Trudeau’s il- efit the organization that
York. lustration depicts Zonker in runs the carnival. He also
The Pulitzer Prize-winning a canoe with the silhouette has created the event’s In this July 12, 2014 file photo, Garry Trudeau speaks onstage
during the “Alpha House” panel at the Amazon 2014 Summer
creator of such charac- of a bear looming over him button design since 1981.q TCA, in Beverly Hills, Calif.
ters as Mike Doonesbury, against a backdrop of a Associated Press