Ken Loach
Sorry We Missed You

Have you ever tried swimming against the current?

The scenes of this film are vigorous and desperate strokes that row in the opposite direction to the state of things. They barely break the surface for a fraction of a second, leaving no trace of their strength. Loach invites us into a proud and tenacious family that, in their continuous daily struggle to make ends meet, still loves each other. But there is no humanity or dignity in this surviving. The film's plot seems a descent into hell, yet it is only the result of an increasingly impersonal and immaterial society, where disparities inexorably grow to the detriment of the underprivileged.

A few impeccably interpreted characters manage to convey the sense of helplessness and fragility that makes today's workers, and especially those of tomorrow, increasingly exposed and vulnerable. It is a life where you have to incur debt just to take a breath of usury, and a world where you cannot afford a single unforeseen event, where you are just a number ready to be replaced by someone more desperate than you, willing to accept even worse conditions. The most basic rights are trampled on, laws are circumvented, and the solution is to lash that cursed, bastard current with greater vigor.

"Sorry We Missed You" talks to us about the consequences of e-commerce on real life with a magnifying glass on the slave-like system that strangles the small-scale bosses. I believe it is a warning for the future in general, which will be increasingly cold, hostile, antiseptic, selfish, and impersonal.

A radical change in the way we approach existence would be necessary, but Loach does not believe in flying donkeys, and thus he gives us a devastating finale with a silence that knocks us to the ground, leaving us bleeding and breathless.