Daniel Blake is 59 years old, and 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.
The Palme d'Or (translated to Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 and it’s previous winners include Taxi Driver, Apocolypse Now, The Piano, Pulp Fiction, and The Pianist to name just a few.
This year’s winner however is a lot closer to home. I, Daniel Blake is a gritty British flick set in the North-East Of England from director Ken Loach, and is only the third British film to take the award in the last 30 years. Interesting enough the last time (2006) a British film scooped the award it was The Wind That Shakes The Barley by……Ken Loach. He now joins a list of 7 others that includes Francis Ford Coppola that have won the award twice.
Due for release October 21st you can view the first trailer below.