This time I want to share with you one of my favorite films, by one of my favorite directors. This is Kes (1969) by Ken Loach, one of the main exponents of the British Free Film movement against Hollywood's contrived style.
Adapted from the novel A Kestrel for a Knave (Barry Hines, 1968), the story follows the life of Billy, a boy with no future who is bullied by his older brother at school and considered by his mother a hopeless case who finds a little hawk whom he names Kes.
It was there that Billy found his life's purpose, his direction, his excitement: to raise and train Kes, to learn the discipline of falconry.
Kes is gorgeous in her development, as we watch a boy struggle against the limitless violence that tells him over and over again that he is worthless, that he has no name and that maybe that is where we can find him.
A crack in the possibility of dreams.
Narrated with the virtuosity of an artist capable of understanding the social injustice of a class destabilized by the State itself, the work is naturalistic and filmed in impoverished settings, far from the opulence and charm of London.
Lodge's work is known for its critique of the British system of government, focusing on working class characters who live under constant oppression, stripped of their rights by an invincible and ineffective bureaucracy.
Stories where there is never hope, never a choice, because Loachs knows that marginalized people rarely know about social mobility, and no matter how much you are willing to train your wings, strengthen them and fly in new directions, there will always be someone to stop you and tell you: this is your Reality, you can never leave here.
