I, DANIEL BLAKE World Cinema

Reemerging from his announced retirement to resume his 50-year plus filmmaking career and claim a second Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, British master Ken Loach returns with another story about everyday people and the extraordinary challenges they face. Daniel, a 59-year-old carpenter from Newcastle, has to stop working as he recovers from a heart attack. For the first time in his life, he needs support from the state. However, Daniel is declared fit for work and has to apply for jobs if he is to get any money. While in the bowels of bureaucracy, he befriends Katie, a single mother who moved hundreds of miles from London with her two children, in order to escape a one-room homeless hostel. Through unforgettable and haunting moments, Loach reminds us again of the irreducible power of compassion in the struggle for human dignity in our modern socioeconomic order. — Sudeep Sharma