Getting By

When director Ken Loach's film I, Daniel Blake was in Belleville as part of the Quinte Film Alternative we missed it, much to my chagrin. It won the Cannes Palme D'Or and received exceptional reviews. Enter Netflix, the fount of second chances for films and TV series.

We watched it last night and both of us found it very moving. Daniel Blake is a joiner (carpenter) who has paid his way his whole life. When his wife is gravely ill he nurses her until her death. When he has a heart attack he finds himself drawn into the maw of the British social service system. His GP and specialist won't clear him to return to work, but a "health care professional" who has assessed him without actually meeting him turns him down for unemployment benefits because he hasn't been seeking work.  When he attempts an appeal he's told he must do so by filling out a complicated form online, even though he knows nothing about computers. In nearly every respect the system is impersonal and Daniel can't understand why staff sitting across a desk from him keep referring him to resources and procedures on the internet.

Along the way we meet others who are struggling to make ends meet in the same maze of bureaucracy which seemed designed to push people down rather than lift them up. Daniel supports a young single mother who is trying her best to provide a stable life for her two kids. Strangers at a centre for those filling out the interminable forms respond to him with kindness and patience. We get a sense of the underworld of society where the poor and unlucky disappear under the weight of just getting by. The title of the film comes from Daniel's eventual act of defiance which results in an arrest.



I don't want to spoil your viewing experience, so you might choose to stop reading now!

Here is the statement which Daniel writes in pencil for his examiners, which sadly ends up being read at his funeral by the young mom. When I heard it I thought of all the stories I've heard through the years from those whose injury, or addiction, or declining health both physical and mental led them to seek out assistance and understanding. Ruth worked as a counselor in a shelter for women and children leaving abusive relationships and heard similar stories of both courage and desperation. As a Christian pastor I wasn't always patient or kind enough, and at times by busyness and middle class sensibilities impeded me from truly seeing and hearing folk. The film is so honest and touching.

‘I am not a client, a customer, nor a service user. I am not a shirker, a scrounger, a beggar nor a thief.
I am not a national insurance number, nor a blip on a screen. I paid my dues, never a penny short, and was proud to do so.
I don’t tug the forelock but look my neighbour in the eye. I don’t accept or seek charity.
My name is Daniel Blake, I am 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, nothing less. Thank you.’

When the film opened these words were projected on the British Houses of Parliament. Wow.