I, Daniel Blake

Having recently suffered a major heart attack at work, Newcastle's 59-year-old widowed carpenter Daniel Blake has been ordered by his doctors to stay out of any vigorous action and rest, however, after a negative employment support assessment, he is deemed ineligible for compensation, not scoring enough points to obtain benefits. Without any income or a pension, desperate and frustrated from the endless, dead-end conversations over the phone with the impersonal government health-care agents, Daniel will visit the welfare office to make an appeal, only to face in person the draconian social workers and to be consumed by a faceless system and its bureaucratic jargon. Against all odds, with perseverance and courage, Daniel Blake, as an original, modern working-class hero, he will boldly stand up for himself and for those in need, withstanding nobly the humiliation while reminding that, above all, we are human by default.