Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach

Veteran left-wing agitator-turned-national treasure Ken Loach came out of retirement in 2016 for one more modest British social drama about life at the sharp end I, Daniel Blake - and won his second Cannes Palme d'Or. Though this coda is missing from Louise Osmond's substantial, interview-heavy documentary, it features illuminating, exclusive on-set footage showing the then 79-year-old at work. An avowedly private man who's more animated on political injustice than on his unique place in international cinema when testifying on camera, it's left to early collaborator Tony Garnett to compensate with candid observations about Loach's self-belief, determination and "infantile omnipotence" (attributed to Loach being an "only son with a devoted mother"). Further insight comes in an epiphany at Oxford University (where Loach recognised that "the ruling class had a face"), the controversial Method-style caning of actors playing errant schoolboys in Kes (Gabriel Byrne later states, "I would not like to cross him"), and at his lowest ebb, when forced by pariah status to make TV commercials (son Jim says the family were "forbidden from talking about them"). In all, a unique film about a one-off film-maker.