Cannes Palme d'Or Winner “I, Daniel Blake” unveils 1st trailer

PanARMENIAN.Net - I, Daniel Blake, the Ken Loach-directed film that won the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or in May, is now angling to crack into the Oscar race as well. Sundance Selects, which acquired the film at the fest and will release it on Dec. 23, is debuting its first U.S. trailer Thursday, October 13, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The film revolves around a proud 59-year-old widower (played by British comedian Dave Johns) from northeast England — where English accents are so thick they require subtitles — who, after 40 years of work as a carpenter, suffers a heart attack. On doctor's orders, he stays home from work for an extended period of time, assuming that the British benefits system which he has paid into for his entire life will kick into action for him. Instead, he runs up against a soul-sucking wall of red tape and bureaucracy that frustrates, infuriates and depresses him, and soon jeopardizes his ability to survive. Even in the face of such adversity, he sees that others have it even worse, and shows particular kindness to a young single mother (Hayley Squires) and her two children (Briana Shann and Dylan McKiernan), who are barely scraping by, as they all begin to look out for one another.