I, Daniel Blake

Hopefully you have watched the film 'I, Daniel Blake' by now. If not, then watch it and write a review of the film so that you can remember your reaction.

Use the resources and the questions below to prompt your response.

What is your opinion of the film?
How did the film make you feel?
Which parts of the most memorable?
Is the film a fair representation of modern Britain?
What does it say about life in the UK?
How did the film make you feel?
Hayley Squires and Dave Johns play the main characters. What did you think of these performances?
Do you think that the current crisis will make us re-consider injustices in society?

 Ken Loach discusses the film and his reasons behind making the film.

Outline the issues and themes in the film.

• Social cleansing
• Universal credit
• The benefit system
• The poverty trap
• Food-banks
• Child poverty
• Regional deprivation
• Inequality 
• Absurdity of bureaucratic state systems
• Compassion of humanity

The film represents the human cost of the politics of austerity and what Loach calls 'conscious cruelty'.   He represents the lives of those people caught in this system.

Now listen/ watch the incredibly articulate Mark Kermode's review of the film.  As media students you need to be following or watching cultural commentators like Mark Kermode who hosts regular film review shows online and on the BBC.

Mark Kermode references the food bank scene which you can find below. He feels it is a very powerful one, 'A silent scream of rage..' showing people, 'reduced and humiliated by circumstance which is so transparently unjustified and undignified.'

'The resonance of the film will raise questions and discussion beyond the cinema. '

The film has the intention to raise awareness and action. Therefore it has a distinctly political message. A Conservative government has just gained a huge majority.  What is your view of the message in this film?

Consider your own reaction to this film. Remember Stuart Hall's theory about audience reception.  Different audiences will receive this message in different ways depending on a number of factors. For example;

• education
• parents
• environment
• schooling
• socio-economic factors
• type of employment
• friendship groups
• regionality
• media usage 

Identify the following readings:

• Preferred reading
• Negotiated reading
• Opposite reading
• Aberrant reading

What factors do you think are most influential in deciding how audiences will interpret this text?


Do you think the message cut through during the last election or was society more concerned with other issues like Brexit than social justice?

Do you think the current health crisis will change public opinion in any way?

We will analyse this key scene when we return.  Reference it in your case study and analyse how it has been constructed.