i-Daniel Blake Day

i-Daniel Blake Day

Thursday 17th of November is I, Daniel Blake Day - at hundreds of cinemas. Go see it. Go see it again. Join the movement tweets Ken Loach. #idanielblakeday

The Plot:

Daniel Blake is a 59-year-old joiner living in the North-East of England who suffers a major heart attack. The film begins when his recovery is incomplete and his cardiologist is concerned that Daniel's heart might begin to beat abnormally, putting him at risk of developing a life-threatening arrhythmia. She tells him not to work.

Daniel is reasonably active day-to-day — he can get around and do DIY — and scores some points at his eligibility assessment for the sickness benefit called 'Employment and Support Allowance'; however, his points tally is below the threshold needed to qualify for this benefit and so he is deemed fit for work. Daniel has assumed that the unspecified "healthcare professional" from the outsourcing company that carried out his Work Capability Assessment — portrayed as a simplistic box-ticking exercise — has contacted his doctor for information on his condition, but she has not. The upshot is that the test's criterion for people who are at risk – which would have qualified Daniel for sickness benefits – is not applied by the Job Centre's unseen "decision-maker". Daniel's only option is to claim Jobseekers Allowance, for people who are able and ready to work, while he waits for his appeal against the decision on his fitness for work to be heard. As a condition of receiving Jobseekers Allowance, he must actively look for work.

Daniel seeks work on the local industrial estate and is offered a job working in a scrapyard. He reluctantly turns it down, with his doctor's advice in mind. Daniel's "work coach" feels he is not making enough effort to get a job.

While Daniel struggles against government red tape, he gets to know single mother Katie and her two children, Dylan and Daisy, who have left a homeless persons' hostel in London and, with no other affordable accommodation being available in the capital, have moved to housing 300 miles (480 kilometres) away in Newcastle. On her first visit to the Job Centre Katie is "sanctioned" — her benefits are stopped because she briefly got lost on the way there — and she then cannot feed everyone in her family nor heat their apartment. Widower Daniel, single-parent Katie and her children try to deal with the poverty they face together. They visit a food bank and Katie is overcome by hunger.

Katie is drawn into the black economy, while Daniel hopes that his legal appeal will ultimately be successful, so that he can receive sickness benefit and not have to look for work until such time as his recovery is complete.

Daniel attends court for his appeal hearing, with Katie to support him. He meets his welfare rights adviser who has obtained copies of the medical records; he advises Daniel that his case looks sound. On glimpsing the judge and doctor who will decide on his appeal, Daniel becomes nervous. He goes to the washroom to cool down. Shortly afterwards, someone shouts for an ambulance. Daniel has collapsed. The tribunal doctor is called but finds that Daniel has no pulse. She begins CPR — unsuccessfully.

At his funeral, Katie reads the eulogy.

Courtesy: Wikipedia

Courtesy of Channel 4: Ken Loach: life in austerity Britain is 'consciously cruel'.

Cathy Come Home was an earlier film by Ken Loach that brought his gritty style of film making into the public conciousness.