British helmer Ken Loach to receive Berlinale lifetime achievement award

PanARMENIAN.Net - The 64th Berlin Film Festival will pay tribute to British director Ken Loach with an honorary Golden Bear at a presentation ceremony that will feature a screening of his 1993 Cannes Jury Prize winner Raining Stones, Deadline said.

Berlin Fest chief Dieter Kosslick calls Loach, “one of Europe’s great directors… His profound interest in people and their individual fates, as well as his critical commitment to society have found expression in a ken loachvariety of cinematic approaches.”

One of Loach’s early successes, Cathy Come Home, aired on the BBC in 1966, drawing 12 million viewers.

The docudrama about a young working-class family that slides into homelessness and is subsequently separated, received such an influx of support at the time that it crashed the BBC switchboard.

Among other highlights of the director’s oeuvre are Land And Freedom (1995), My Name Is Joe (1998), Bread And Roses (2000), The Wind That Shakes The Barley (2006), Looking For Eric (2009) and 2012 comedy The Angel’s Share. He has appeared in Berlin several times, most recently with 2013′s The Spirit Of ’45.

The Berlinale will run a retrospective of 10 of Loach’s films to commemorate the award.