14 ★ FTWeekend 26 October/27 October 2019Arts
D
id you know John McDon-
nell had a little part in my
filmHidden Agenda?” Ken
Loach asks with a smile.
Whether it’s the activities of
thegilets jaunes r the Labour party’so
shadow chancellor, my encounters with
the British director always start with a
round-upofFrenchandBritishnews.
When you have known Ken Loach for
more than 20 years, there is a strange
feeling that while you’re definitely get-
ting older, he seems to keep getting
younger. While many of us have moved
away from our early socialist convic-
tions,Loach has never veeredfromhis
belief in social justice. At 83, he is still a
prolific film-maker, and the only differ-
ence between then and now is that he
recently had to stop editing on a Steen-
beck machine with scissors and tape, as
theydidinthe1930s.
“It now costs too much to do it the old
way,” he says with regret — like shooting
in black-and-white or on 35mm film.
That’s the only bit of nostalgia he allows
himself, however; otherwise he lives
verymuchinthepresent.Hisfilmsarea
constant reminder of his political com-
mitment through art, and his 27th film,
SorryWeMissedYou,isnoexception.
When I visit Loach in his tiny editing
suite off London’s Oxford Circus, he is
relishing listening to dialogue in Geor-
die, the dialect of the film’s Newcastle
setting. “It has a purity, a sharpness and
an energy to it,” Loach enthuses.And so
doesSorryWeMissedYou.
It tells the story of Ricky and Abbie, a
couple trapped in the dehumanising
world of zero-hour contracts. He is a
self-employed parcel delivery driver,
she is a home carer for elderly people.
While Abbie is paid only per visit and
has to cover the cost of travel to clients,
Ricky must provide his own delivery
van and finds himself beholden to a
scannerthattrackshiseverymove.Ifhe
takestimeoff,hehastopaypenalties.
In other words, the “flexibility and
freedom” of the gig economy sold to
them was a lie. Exhausted, they hardly
have the energy to look after their teen-
age children. Ricky is played by Kris
Hitchen, who started off as an actor but
has worked mostly as a plumber, while
Abbie is played by real-life teaching
assistantDebbieHoneywood.Tough lives,
hard facts
Cinema Ken Loach’s latest film shines a light on|
zero-hours contracts and their effect on family life.
Agnès Poiriermeets the award-winning director
Clockwise from
main picture:
film-maker
Ken Loach;
Kris Hitchen
and Katie
Proctor in ‘Sorry
We Missed You’;
Dave Johns in
‘I, Daniel Blake’
Joss Barratt; Andy
Parsons/Camera PressLoach often auditions hundreds of
applicants for parts, usually from the
area where the film is set, and likes mix-
ing trained actors with non-profession-
als. He has a particular eye for casting
children and teenagers such as Rhys
Stone, who plays Ricky and Abbie’s
teenage truant son Seb — a graffiti artist
both on screen and in real life. Seb
comes to despise his father for being a
slave to a job that still doesn’t bring in
enough money to support the family.
His younger sister Lisa, played by Katie
Proctor, is a lively redhead who can only
look on powerless as her family slowly
disintegratesunderthepressure.
“What we were interested in is
the impact such work had on family
life,” Loach says. “In public, you have
this persona, you are trying to be
flexible, you are composed. But once
back at home, you totally collapse, youallRicky’scolleaguesinthefilmarereal-
lifeorformerdeliverydrivers.”
After watching Loach make films for
twodecades, ftenwithcollaboratorsheo
hasworkedwithsincethe1970s,suchas
his editor Jonathan Morris, it is impossi-
blenottoadmiretheconstancyandrate
of work (17 films in 20 years). In 2014,
soon after completing his Irish-set
period filmJimmy’s Hall, a particularly
exhausting shoot, Loach announced his
retirement.Itdidn’tlastlong.Twoyears
laterhereturnedwith ,DanielBlakeI.
While the subjects of his films are
alwaysinvestigatedthoroughly,theyare
also treated with humour and deep
humanity.Sweet Sixteen(2002) focusedbeautifully on the travails of adoles-
cence, 2012’sThe Angels’ Shareon a
Highlands whisky heist, whileLooking
for Eric 2009) was a surprising piece of(
football poetry.Sorry We Missed You lsoa
features some lovely upbeat moments,
especially between Ricky and Lisa when
she joinsherdadondeliveryrounds.
Loach has been one of the faces of
British cinema abroad since his master-
pieceKesplayed at Cannes in 1970.He is
part of an exclusive club of directors
whohavetwicebeenawardedthePalme
d’Or (The Wind That Shakes the Barley ni
2006;I, Daniel Blakein 2016).In Britain,
however, his political position, some-
where to the left of the current Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn, raises eyebrows,
and his views are oftendismissed as
anachronistic. ButI, Daniel Blake, hichw
stirred up debate on rising poverty, the
benefits system and use of food banks,
wasintenselycontemporary.
What he cares about most deeply is
the situation now facing the working
poor. The reality today is that employ-“
ment doesn’t guarantee a decent life,”
he says. “You may have a job, even two,
and still not have enough to feed your-
selfandyourfamily.
“Look at Abbie. She is paid for the 20
minutes she spends with an elderly
patient but not for the next 40 minutes
she spends travelling to her next
appointment,at her own cost. Which
means she is actually paid a third of theminimumwage.”
The core of the problem, as he sees it,
is the privatisation of public services
and subcontracting from local councils
to the companies chosen because they
are cheapest. “Nobody accepts respon-
sibility for the inevitable dire conse-
quences of such a system,” he says. As
forthepartplayedbynewtechnologyin
all of this: “It has been used to lower
labour costs rather than to benefit eve-
ryone. And I regret to say that the EU
hasbeencolludinginit.”
On the EU, Loach is ambivalent. He
did vote Remain, but only just, and
argues that the EU has encouraged pri-
vatisation on a massive scale, benefiting
capitalism rather than the people, and
that EU regulations protecting workers
arenotasstrongastheyshouldbe.
Loach is a contradiction in our Brexit
times. Here is a fundamentally Euro-
pean film-maker who found his artistic
calling while watching classics of the
French New Wave, Italian neo-realism
andIngmarBergman’searlyworksathis
local cinema.His films are also to a large
part financed by European companies
and generous EU schemes. Without
them,hemostprobablywouldn’tbeable
to workthe way he does. But this is one
area of politics that Loach is reluctant to
be dragged into. “The big issues tran-
scendBrexit,”hesays.‘Sorry We Missed You’ is in UK and
European cinemas from November 1
and will be released in the US in March‘The reality today is that
employment doesn’t
guarantee a decent life,enough to feed your family’
have no flexibility left for your family.”
We middle-class consumers all know
people like Ricky and Abbie. They are
the delivery men we meet on an almost
daily basis thanks to ouronline shop-
ping habits, and the women who look
after our parents and grandparents.
Andtheir plight s not only a moral cer-i
tainty, but a fact based on careful
research carried out by Paul Laverty,
Loach’sregularscreenwriter.
“It was Paul’s idea and he spent
months investigatingthe delivery and
care industries, doing interviews with
drivers and care workers,” Loach says.
“He studied thesubcontracting process
from councils to service providers. AndOCTOBER 26 2019 Section:Weekend Time: 10/201924/ - 17:27 User:paul.gould Page Name:WKD14, Part,Page,Edition:WKD, 14, 1