VIEW FROM THE GROUND – 9

I, Kenneth Loach

It is a Catch-22 situation. The hero, 59-year-old carpenter Daniel Blake is driven by good thoughts, good words and good deeds but he is in dire straits.  He suffered a major heart attack and his doctor orders him to take rest. To get unemployment benefits, he must prove that he is spending 35 hours/week looking for work. He approaches the job centre (government –run local employment exchange) and they are very callous. The government deems him well enough to work demanding that he immediately start looking for jobs. Else, he will have to face sanctions on the benefits he is entitled to. Daniel is all alone, his wife is expired and he does not have any kids. He is a plebian who owns a low-tech cell phone and has never used a PC. He is compulsorily sent to CV writing work-shops where he is asked to make video CVs  and send them from the his smart phone. He does not have one. What’s more, he can’t even operate a computer mouse! When asked to run the mouse up the screen, he physically moves the device upwards through the side of the monitor!

“We are digital by default”, the impersonal new world tells him.

Yeah? Well, I’m a pencil by default, he retorts.

As a professional carpenter, he always carries a pencil at the back of the right ear.

Xue Jiye

A supervisor takes pity on Daniel while filling up a form on-line.  Oddly enough, she is reprimanded by her boss and loudly chastised.

Better to have unfairness for all.

Here we get the first impression of the trappings of the establishment. Nothing happens by accident, it’s a deliberate effort to dehumanize you.

Now, Daniel meets Katie , a young single mother of two who got squeezed out from London. The government relocates her to New Castle by coercion, as it doesn’t want to house the poor in the City. Katie has a hand-to-mouth existence but she does not complain. She cooks for her children but does not have enough for herself. Daniel befriends the kids Daisy and Dylan and he soon becomes their sole benefactor. He has a platonic relationship with Katie, rooted in compassion and respect. After all they are in the same boat, two victims of the system. Daniel wants to help Katie out though he finds himself descending to into a life of abject poverty. The Kafkaesque cycle of bureaucracy, appeals and sanctions takes the wind out of his sails.

Meanwhile, Katie breaks open a can of beans at a food-bank and drinks the juice because she is so hungry. The event gets publicized and she becomes the butt of ridicule. At school, even her daughter is made fun of. To make matters worse, she is caught for shoplifting sanitary products. She is driven against the wall and there is only one option left – to sell herself. Daniel is a witness to all these and he keeps Katie from despair. Love is unconditional, obviously.

When one is down and out, help comes in one way or other.

Xue Jiye

In the end, Daniel has had enough.

He blows out his rage. He risks arrest by scrawling his plight on the road-facing wall of the job-centre. The passers by stop for a while and cheer him. There is a sizable crowd. One guy comes forward and covers Daniel with his coat as the climate is too cold. An impromptu Knighthood is conferred on him. Sir Daniel Blake !

You should be honored with a statue, the guy declares.

However, the police arrives and whisks Daniel away. The film does not end here, though.

Daniel appeals to the government against its decision to impose sanctions and he appears with a hand-written note in his pocket. He cannot read it aloud.

He suffers the fatal stroke at the washroom.

I am not a beggar or a thief, the Note says….

I am not a National Insurance Number or a blip on a screen….

I paid my dues, never a penny short and proud to do so….

I look my neighbor in the eye and help him if I can…

I don’t accept or seek charity…

My name is Daniel Blake.

I’m a man, not a dog

As such, I demand my rights

I demand you treat me with respect

I Daniel Blake, am a citizen

Nothing more and nothing less.

The out-pouring of rage from a man caught in the gears of an unfeeling system.

There is more to it, in fact. The machinations are deliberate.  The system does not want you to become a citizen with honor and self-respect. Prostrate is the word. The system tries it’s best to deflate you at every available opportunity.

It does not like to get questioned.

Xue Jiye

Loach says,

The intentional inefficiency of bureaucracy is a political weapon. It is a way of intimidating people in a manner that is anything but accidental.

His hero, Daniel Blake confirms.

 “When you lose your self-respect, you are done for”.

The film won the Palme dÓr at Cannes last year. Loach’s second after Wind that shakes the Barley in 2006. Part of the credit goes to the lead actors, Dave Johns in the title role and Hayley Squires as the single mother in her debut performance.

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