Watch: 10 More Films from Palme d'Or Winning Director Ken Loach

Alexandra Rosenmann
,
 AlterNet
and
 Alexandra Rosenmann
May 23, 2016

Filmmaker Ken Loach took home the Palme d'Or for "I, Daniel Blake" (2016), a drama about a 59-year-old English carpenter with a heart condition and his struggle for disability insurance. Blake is only the ninth filmmaker to win Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or twice. He also recieved the prestigious award for "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" (2006).

Loach's directorial career spans over five decades. His first big break was directing "Cathy Come Home" in 1966, a film about homelessness and the Britsh welfare system that was watched by 12 million people. In the past half-century, Loach's films have focused on themes such as workers', womens' and immigrants' rights. Loach was also one of 100 artists who signed a letter to the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival "to honour calls for an international boycott of Israeli political and cultural institutions, by discontinuing Israeli consulate sponsorship of the LGBT film festival and not co-sponsoring events with the Israeli consulate."

“I hope they were touched by [the film "I, Daniel Blake"]," Loach said, upon recieving the award at Cannes. "I hope they felt like we did; That the state bureaucracies are cruel and they humiliate people," the director added.

Watch: 10 more Loach films, in previews:

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