Entertainment

The Belfast Film Festival pays homage to a man who has given a voice to those who struggle to be heard

<strong>CHATTING WITH KEN:</strong> In conversation, Ken Loach is engaging and engaged as he explains to me how the world is run for the benefit of the ruling elite and how we need to change that
CHATTING WITH KEN: In conversation, Ken Loach is engaging and engaged as he explains to me how the world is run for the benefit of the ruling elite and how we need to change that CHATTING WITH KEN: In conversation, Ken Loach is engaging and engaged as he explains to me how the world is run for the benefit of the ruling elite and how we need to change that

It would be hard to imagine a more worthy recipient of the Belfast Film Festival’s Réalta award than Ken Loach.

From Poor Cow in 1971 to I, Daniel Blake in 2016, his work has entered the fray of a wide range of contemporary social and political issues that resonate across the globe. From homelessness, to poverty to labour rights, his work has ensured that a voice is given to those who struggle to have their voices heard.

This was borne out when a member of the audience at a Q&A in the Moviehouse thanked Loach for his work.

“I just wanted, as someone with complex medical problems and who was put through what was quite frankly a disgusting and humiliating regime, to say thank you for representing me and people like me with compassion and integrity,” she said.

“That means a lot to me,” Loach replied in a genuine engagement.

Kenneth Charles Loach was born in Nuneaton, an industrial town, of 60-70,000 people, may of whom were miners or ex-miners or skilled workers in big factories, like his own family. “My dad was an electrician, and he was a very bright man,” Loach recalls.

“When he was 11, he passed the exam to go to Grammar school, which was a bit thing back in 1920 or so, but he was one of ten children and his mother said she couldn’t afford the uniform so he never went.

“A boy in the same class went on to be a headmaster and my Dad became an electrician and I think he carried that with him all his life. “His son doing law at Oxford was as good as it got for him.”

It was at at University that Loach’s social conscience began to develop, when he saw the huge “sense of entitlement” that was rampant amongst people who behaved as if they knew they were destined to rule the world.

“That is when I really became aware of the disparity in society and then when I left and joined the BBC, I met film and television programme makers and writers, we learned as we worked really, exploring different issues and the importance of politics became apparent and that was in the mid-1960s which was a very political time.”

It was at this period that Ken met Jim Allen, a Mancunian Marxist who taught Loach about Ireland.

“We did a series called Days of Hope which was about the labour movement in the early part of the century in which there is a scene where a young soldier in the First World War called Ben Matthews who thought he was going to be sent to fight in Belgium or France but he is actually sent to Ireland instead,” Loach recalls.

Ros Cranston writing in the BFI website argues that:

“When Ben is in Ireland, he and his fellow soldiers taunt an Irish serving girl to sing "one of your rebel songs." She overcomes her intimidation through the songs, and the men are quietened and listen with respect. Loach shows two opposing groups come together, in a spirit of working-class unity which overcomes the hostility instilled in the soldiers during their training.”

Loach has said that control from above is rampant in television, a medium which Loach believes is not only killing creativity but which is also utterly biased according to Loach. All you have to do is to turn on the Today programme in the morning and you will get examples of bias, he says.

“Just a couple of days go when the alleged Syrian chemical attack took took place,  Dianne Abott was on and she said she wanted to go to the United Nations but the BBC said the Russians wouldn’t allow a motion to be passed that would be critical of it and Syria, and she had to deal with that.

“Half an hour later, an Israeli politician was interviewed where he said that Israel wouldn’t allow the United Nations to investigate their shootings in Gaza. But that wasn’t mentioned and yet it was an identical situation. The authority of the United Nations was used against a Labour spokesperson, but left out completely of the other interview.”

Loach has long had an interest in the Middle East and a harsh critic of the actions of the Israeli government. 

In 2009, he said that “nothing has been a greater instigator of antisemitism than the self-proclaimed Jewish state itself.”

Given the recent March to Return killings, he contends that Israel does what it does because “we” ie Britain and the United States allow it.

“The US is more powerful than we are but the EU also allows it through trade deals.

“What is happening in Israel is clearly in breach of international law –  clearly they kill Palestinians with impunity, they steal land with impunity and it has been going on more or less for the last 70 years.

“International law is held in contempt by Israel, the United Nations is is held in contempt and we have an arms trade with them the same way we have an arms trade with Saudi Arabia to provide them with weapons to do untold things in Yemen. You can’t criticise one with criticising the other.

“But Israel is unique in a ridiculous way. They even enter the Eurovision Song Contest and they play in European football competitions despite shooting young Palestinian footballers in the feet. And Israel isn’t even in Europe! There is no way FIFA should let it be part of its competitions as long as they prevent Palestinians from playing.”

It’s fair to say that Ken Loach and his films have rarely been described as “upbeat” but he does see hope in the rise of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party in Britain. There definitely is an opportunity for Labour as never before, he believes.

“The door is ajar,” he affirms. “it depends on how well Labour organises; it depends on the leadership it shows, both Corbyn and John McDonald, who I believe are people of integrity, decency and principle and they have the makings of a real transformation of our society,” says Loach.

“However, there are many people operating against them, both amongst the remnants of the Blairites against them as well as the massed ranks of the press and the broadcast media as well as big business. It’s a tough gig,” he says.

Loach is coy as to whether we might see another film from him. We can only hope.