I, Daniel Blake (DVD)

Dir Ken Loach, £12.99

The DVD release of I, Daniel Blake really is a must-see. 


Ken Loach’s film is an unflinching exploration of the reality of government welfare reforms. The powerful performances illustrate the effects on people at the receiving end of this Orwellian nightmare. Their stories, though fictional, find parallels with many who have found themselves at the mercy of the Department of Work and Pensions in recent years.


The main character, Daniel Blake, is a skilled carpenter who has been instructed not to return to work after suffering a near-fatal heart attack on the job. 


With his rare talent for portraying the reality of working class life accurately and without sensationalising, Loach explores the interconnection between welfare “reforms”, food banks, mental health and the variously creative, dangerous and degrading ways people are obliged to find to get by.


The film also deals with the internal conflict among Jobcentre Plus advisors, with a workforce caught between the right’s campaign against benefit claimants and their own instinctual urges to offer support to some of the most disadvantaged in our society.


If you need a book to go with the film, how about Walter Greenwood’s classic Love on the dole, or even The making of the English working class by EP Thompson?


Reviews contributed by the Bookmarks socialist bookshop. 


Order online at https://bookmarksbookshop.co.uk