Abstract

“Could I recommend the Prime Minister supports British cinema and takes herself along to see a Palme d’Or-winning film, I, Daniel Blake?” Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said to Theresa May in parliament last November. The film Corbyn was recommending is British director Ken Loach’s twenty-sixth movie. The story centers on Dan, or Daniel Blake, a widower who has a heart attack while working on a building site. The film follows Dan’s attempts to navigate the bureaucratic hellscape of the benefits system. I, Daniel Blake is not the first of Loach’s films to become fodder in a national political debate about how we choose to treat people who experience hard times.

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