The latest film from Ken Loach is among the great British director’s most urgent and humane works. I, Daniel Blake, for which Loach was awarded his second Palme d’Or, pits an ordinary working-class man against a soulless bureaucracy.

Blake is a 59-year-old widower living in Newcastle. Following a near-fatal cardiac arrest, he’s instructed by his doctor not to return to his carpentry job. So Blake dutifully applies to the Department for Work and Pensions for sickness benefits—and to his shock, his honesty triggers a denial. With a meager jobseeker’s allowance now his sole source of income, Blake is given no choice but to jump through various systematic hoops, some baffling, some humiliating. At least he has a friend in Katie, a young single mother whose situation is even more desperate than his.

Based on extensive research performed by screenwriter Paul Laverty (writer of The Olive Tree, a favorite at this year’s Festival), I, Daniel Blake doesn’t shy away from depicting the brutality of system that can seem designed to abandon those who need it most. It is a testament to the cinematic powers of Loach, Laverty, et al, that even within this bleak scenario, solidarity and dignity prevail, reminding us that we are never truly alone.