Review: I, Daniel Blake

Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and Outstanding British Film at this years BAFTA's, I, Daniel Blake is the latest offering from eighty year old director Ken Loach who seems to be getting better with age as this powerful and moving drama shows an unflinching social commentator at the top of his game.
I, Daniel Blake introduces us to widowed old fashioned woodworker, Daniel Blake (played exceptionally by Dave Johns)  a man who has recently suffered a heart attack and must battle a state welfare system which untlimately fails him. Along the way he meets a struggling single mother (played by Hayley Squires) and her two children and leads them in a mission to stand up and fight for their rights, dignity and self worth against a welfare system lacking in both respect and compassion.
Interwoven in equal parts with humour, heart and dismay, I, Daniel Blake once again sees Loach stand up for the exploited lower classes.
Loach envokes a variety of emotions in the viewer as we watch the protaganist Daniel Blake struggle with an uncompromising system that fundamentally fails the very people it is intended for. Each scene is filled with the social realistic traits made famous by Loach as we watch Blake and those around him struggle on a daily basis yet still manage to show restraint and compassion within a structure sadly lacking those same qualities.
Overall, all the plaudits and awards for this powerfully emotional social drama were well deserved in a film that showcases a master of populist filmmaking deliver quite emphatically once again. Powerful!
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