HEROIC LOSERS: A TRIBUTE TO KEN LOACH

Fifteen-year-old Billy lives with his mother and older half-brother, Judd. A loner, Billy likes to wander through the valleys and woodlands near his home. During one of his walks, he steals a young kestrel from its nest. He hides it in his house and feeds and trains it, having learned how to do so from a book he has stolen from a bookshop. One day, his brother entrusts him with the money he plans to bet at the horses, but Billy spends it on himself. Wild with anger, Judd tries to catch him, but Billy gets away. When he comes home later on, the kestrel is missing. Billy looks for it everywhere. He realizes that Judd has harmed it. After a violent confrontation with Judd and his mother, Billy finds his kestrel dead in the rubbish bin. He strokes it lovingly and then buries it.

Stevie, a young Glaswegian just released from prison, moves to London and gets a job on a building site, a melting pot of itinerant laborers from all over the country. The wages are low; the site teems with rats; he has nowhere to sleep and life in London isn't that easy. He meets Susan, desperate to make a name as a singer, drifting through life, never quite getting it under control. Stevie and Susan learn to live with the ups and downs of life in London.

1936. David, an unemployed young man, leaves Liverpool to 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, and together with his comrades he experiences the passions of war. On returning to Barcelona he finds he is torn between loyalty to the Communist Party and his new-found love, Blanca. The resolution of this conflict and David's return to his comrades at the front may seem tragic, but his dreams of revolutionary change remains undimmed.

Set in Glasgow, the film centers around a reformed alcoholic, Joe. Unemployed, grabbing jobs whenever he can, he channels his restless energy through a no-hope football team. When he meets health - visitor Sarah, an unlikely relationship develops which reality sets to thwart: the two live in different worlds in the same city, and each has a past and vulnerability that makes them wary of commitment. Joe's naοve quest to set the world to rights is an added obstacle to their lasting happiness and leads him on the path to self-destruction.

Northern Ireland, some years ago. A team of civil liberties campaigners arrives in Belfast to look into claims of civil liberties violatiuons. During a press conference, they are approached by a woman who offers to give them photographs of the way the British treat anyone suspected of belonging to the IRA. One of the campaigners, an American lawyer, agrees to meet secretly with a man named Harris, who will provide him with more evidence. On the way to their meeting, however, armed men stop the car and proceed to shoot both the campaigner and the driver dead. As the victim was a foreign national, Inspector Kerrigan is brought in from London to head the investigation...

Inspired by real-life events, this is the story of Maggie and Jorge, and their struggle to have a family. Maggie has had their four children (by four different fathers) removed by Social Services because of a previous violent relationship. When she meets Jorge, a gentle Latin American immigrant, she gradually sees her chance for happiness, but her history still haunts her. Once entangled with the social bureaucracy, she finds it difficult to break free. Ladybird, Ladybird is an emotional and harrowing story of a woman's fight to keep her children and her relationship intact. It is also a love story.

The future appears quite uncertain for the last-standing pub in a village in northeastern England, The Old Oak. Most of the locals are abandoning the place as the mines they used to work in are closing one by one, while Syrian refugees are arriving in the village since the houses are affordable. Remaining true to the anthropocentric, socio-political approach to cinema that has established him as one of the greatest contemporary directors, the eminent Ken Loach, with his exceptional latest film, tells yet another unforgettable story of mental resilience and dignity. The Old Oak, a striking example of socially conscious cinema that doesn't shy away from the pressing issues of its time, adeptly explores the theme of harmonious coexistence among diverse cultural groups. It brings neorealism into the present day, with unmatched storytelling finesse and profound humanity.