Original-Cin Q&A: Director Ken Loach Once Again Marshalls Reality On-Screen

By Liam Lacey

Ken Loach is the Bernie Sanders of filmmakers, a die-hard 60s social democrat who has seen a new generation world come back around to his way of thinking.

An electrician’s son who won scholarships to grammar school and later Oxford to study law, he started out in theatre. He first broke through on television, on the BBC series called The Wednesday Play (initiated by Canadian Sidney Newman), where Loach directed some of its most famously controversial episodes about family homelessness and abortion (Cathy Come Home, Up The Junction).

Later, as a filmmaker, he continued making working-class dramas — Poor Cow, about a young woman drifting into prostitution, and Kes, about a bullied teen and his pet kestrel, which was ranked seventh in the British Film Institute’s list of top dramas of all time.

Loach moved into documentary and episodic television in the seventies and eighties, not a good time for a leftist filmmaker. But his long and continuing comeback started in 1990 with Hidden Agenda, a political thriller that cast England as engaging in state terrorism in Northern Ireland.

That establishing a long line of Cannes success for Loach, including two Palme d’Ors, for the Irish period drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley in 2006 and 2016’s I, Daniel Blake, a Newcastle-set drama about a 59-year-old carpenter and his struggle to claim benefits after suffering a heart attack.

It was in the course of researching that film that screenwriter Paul Laverty learned of the widespread phenomenon of the working poor, families that relied on charitable food banks to make ends meet. That led to the investigation to a wider examination of the “gig economy” that led to Sorry We Missed You. Loach spoke to Original-Cin by phone from his London office.

Read our review of Sorry We Missed You

Original-Cin: When I think of my mother’s generation, coming through the war, “working-class pride” was a real English thing but that seems to have faded. Ricky is quick to buy into the idea of getting out from under the yoke of an employer, of being an entrepreneur. When do you think that changed?

Ken Loach: Well, you’re talking about class consciousness. During the time of big industries, of mining, steel working and so on, it was easier to form people into a collective and unionize. And after the war, there was a sense that we’d pulled together and helped each other and we’d won the war, which gave birth to the welfare state and pride in the working class. There was an expectation that, if you got a union job, you’d have enough to feed your family, have a home and a good pension for your old age.

That really all changed with Margaret Thatcher, who understood class warfare – better than working people, better than Labour Party for sure, and she attacked the unions. The establishment says the exact opposite of what’s true and some people buy into it. That’s why you have working-class people nowadays identifying with the Right.

OC: You’ve worked with well-known film actors, and have had a habit of casting standup comedians in dramatic roles – including in I, Daniel Blake. While Kris Hitchen has done a small amount of acting, the rest of the cast is non-professional, including Debbie Honeywood. Was it a strategy to deliberately pick non-professionals for this film?

KL: We looked at everybody and we picked the people we felt were the most believable. Kris has spent most of his life as a plumber and he knows the world of his character but he had to be able to act, to portray the character on screen. Debbie was a teacher’s aid so she’s used to being empathetic with people. And Ross Brewster, who plays Maloney, was a policeman for thirty years. He’s someone who’s experienced in taking charge, of walking into a room and making people listen to him. Everyone had life experience that helped them in their role.

OC: This is the fourth film you’ve done with Irish cinematographer, Robbie Ryan, in the last decade, including The Angel’s Share, Jimmy’s Hall and I, Daniel Blake. Filmgoers might associate him with high-profile Oscar-nominated movies like The Favourite and Marriage Story, which have a very different aesthetic. How do you bring him into the Ken Loach world?

KL: Well, we get along well. It’s very simple really. It’s about technique that doesn’t show itself. The camera’s usually on a tripod and what’s important is what’s in front of the camera and to use set-ups that allow the actors to do their best work. We want to let people see the world through their eyes.