Projects matching: Ken Loach

Synopsis

Eric the postman is slipping through his own fingers.
His chaotic family, his wild stepsons, and the cement mixer in the front garden don’t help, but it is Eric’s own secret that drives him to the brink. Can he face Lily, the woman he once loved thirty years ago? Despite outrageous efforts and misplaced goodwill from his football fan mates, Eric continues to sink.
In desperate times it takes a spliff and a special friend from strange parts to challenge a lost postman to make that journey into the most perilous territory of all – the past.
As the Chinese, and one Frenchman, say, 'He who is afraid to throw the dice, will never throw a six'.

Synopsis

This film centres around the theme of its title, peace portraits. It is a film which has many entries, muscians who talk about their art and some who just play play, this feature film also has appearances by other artists from the professional fields and are well known in the film industry.

Synopsis

Angie gets the sack from a recruitment agency for bad behaviour in public. Seizing the chance, she teams up with her flatmate, Rose, to run a similar business from their kitchen. With immigrants desperate to work the opportunities are considerable, particularly for two girls so in tune with these times.

Synopsis

Ireland 1920: workers from field and country unite to form volunteer guerrilla armies to face the ruthless 'Black and Tan' squads that are being shipped from Britain to block Ireland's bid for independence.

Driven by a deep sense of duty and a love for his country, Damien abandons his burgeoning career as a doctor and joins his brother, Teddy, in a dangerous and violent fight for freedom.

As the freedom fighters' bold tactics bring the British to breaking point, both sides finally agree to a treaty to end the bloodshed. But despite the apparent victory, civil war erupts and families who fought side by side find themselves pitted against one another as sworn enemies, putting their loyalties to the ultimate test.

Synopsis

Three highly acclaimed directors join together to direct three interwoven stories that take place during a journey from Central Europe to Rome. The charcters connect through casual encounters and set forth a story of love, chance and sacrifice.
 
One older businessman finds solace and a new insight into life when he is forced to wait at the train station due to bad weather. A young man is reminded of life's obligations but is also introduced to love. And three Scottish youths on their way to the football match of their dreams are forced to open their eyes and see the bigger picture.
 
One single train journey sparks many changes for many people. This is a film about priviledge and exclusion, and the reality of the value of just one 'Ticket'.

Synopsis

Casim is a second generation Pakistani from Glasgow. Working as a DJ in Glasgow's coolest venues, he dreams of buying his own club. His parents Tariq and Sadia are devout Muslims and plan for him to marry his beautiful cousin Jasmine - who is soon to arrive in the UK. His proud father spends all his spare time supervising the building of an extension to the family home where the couple are to live. Casim's parents then arrange for his older sister Rukhsana to marry Amar, a promising young scientist from a good family. Life for Casim and his family is ticking along nicely. Until he meets Roisin.
 
A music teacher at his sister Tahara's school, Roisin Hanlon is sparky and intelligent. She and Casim soon fall deeply in love. But Casim knows all too well that, even if he wasn't due to marry, his parents would never accept a 'goree' - a white girl. And as a Catholic, Roisin finds that her own community aren't very supportive either. Then Casim and Roisin are discovered, and the repercussions of the scandal reach far and wide. When Casim's family find that their peaceful and ordered life is threatened, they decide to take action - bringing matters to a dramatic conclusion.
 

Synopsis

Liam's mum, Jean, is in prison but should be out in time for his 16th birthday. This time Liam is determined that things will be different. He dreams of a family life he's never had, which means creating a safe haven beyond the reach of wasters like Jean's boyfriend Stan and his own mean-spirited Grandfather.
But first he's got to raise the cash - no mean feat for a skint teenager. It's not long before Liam and his pals' crazy schemes lead them into all sorts of trouble. Finding himself dangerously out of his depth, Liam knows he should walk away. Only this time, he just can't let go.

Synopsis

The Navigators follows the fortunes of a group of rail track workers based at a South Yorkshire depot as the privatisation of British Rail takes effect. When Harpic (so called because he's clean around the bend), the depot boss, gives Paul, Mick and the rest of the gang their new working brief, the company's 'mission statement', 'performance-related pay' and no paid holidays seems like a joke. But before long the choice is very clear to the gang; take their chances with redundancy cash and life as casual agency workers, or work for the company under the new rules...

Synopsis

Maya, a young Mexican, crosses the border to join her tough elder sister Rosa who works as a cleaner in a down town block, home to some of LA's most powerful corporate clients.

The two sisters have a deep but fiery relationship which is further stretched by Sam, a talented and anarchistic American activist, who is part of a dynamic campaign opposed to older methods of trade union organising. They have a simple motto, 'No Justice, No Peace' and embark on a peaceful but highly imaginative guerrilla campaign for trade union recognition against cleaning companies and powerful corporate owners of the tower blocks.

Ken Loach's first US-set film exposes a side of Los Angeles that to date has been swept under the corporate carpet.

Written by Paul Laverty, Bread And Roses is set around the early 1990s Justice for Janitors strike which saw an army of exploited cleaners - the invisible Latino immigrants - take to the streets to protest for basic workers' rights. The film stars Pilar Padilla and Elpidia Carrillo as the two sisters involved in the struggle and Adrien Brody as a union activist who leads the campaign against their employers.

For Loach, the appeal was that "the film was set in another world that existed side by side with the movie world. It's about organising immigrant workers, (who are) very vulnerable and easily exploited. Having worked on a film in Nicaragua (Carla's Song), this seemed another element in the same wider story, the relationship between the US and countries that are essentially its colonies, economically and culturally."

The film was shot according to Loach's pared-down aesthetics, with a high shooting ratio that allowed the director to let the dialogue run on until he had what he needed. Making the film in the US with a significant number of extras meant the budget, at $5.5m, was higher than usual. It also meant Loach had to occasionally break the rules "which is always quite entertaining", he says.

Synopsis

Described as an English slacker movie and inspired by the film-making methods of Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Kevin Smith, The Devil's Feast explores issues such as religion, sex, politics and violence as it tells the story of Chloe Mason (Cait Sweeney), a conceptual artist whose latest work, The Devil's Feast, has split the art world in two. Flashbacks reveal what inspired Chloe to produce such a controversial exhibition, introducing the friends and acquaintances that influenced her. The result is part psychological drama, part black comedy that its producers say aims to keep the viewer guessing.

Shot on digital video, the no-budget film follows the format of Mischief Pictures' previous 50min film, 4 Play, which was made two years ago using a non-professional cast, an improvised script and hand-held camera in an attempt to capture the real life rather than the dreaming spires cliche of the town of Oxford. "We shot over about five months with equipment given to us by two production companies," says producer Richard Duriez, who, like director Sharon Woodward, has a background in documentaries."It was incredibly difficult but we wanted to develop our skills at feature film-making. We've met so many film-makers who have got backing to make their first feature and cocked it up so we decided to make sure we knew how before looking for financing."

The Devil's Feast premiered at the Oxford Phoenix Picture House in November 1999 and has just screened at the Portobello Film Festival in August.

Synopsis

A love story full of humour, passion and danger, My Name is Joe was filmed in the heart of one of the poorest and most neglected neighbourhoods of Scotland's biggest city. Two street-wise but vulnerable people struggle to overcome the harsh conditions that weigh them down, leaving few choices in their lives.

Synopsis

1936. David, an unemployed young man, leaves Liverpool to join the fight against Fascism in the early days of the Spanish Civil War. He joins an international section of the Republican Militia on the Aragon front where he experiences the trials and anguish of the war.
Wounded, he convalesces in Barcelona and is caught in the conflict on the Republican side between the Communist Party and his revolutionary comrades in the militia.
The resolution of this conflict and David's return to the front may seem tragic but his belief in the possibility of revolutionary change is unshaken. His story is revealed only after his death, sixty years later, in letters discovered by his granddaughter.