The World According to Ken Loach 2024

The Edison Filmhub will host a weekend festival of eight films between May 9 and 12, introducing audiences to Ken Loach's filmography spanning more than five decades.

Dramaturgs of the cinema about the festival: “‘I don't think films about working class people are sad at all; I think they're funny and lively and invigorating and warm and generous and full of good things.’” If we wanted to sum up Ken Loach's work in one quote, we probably couldn't find a better one than this. The films of the now canonical British director see individuals entangled in social systems and living conditions that oppress, humiliate or threaten them. The stories Loach tells, however, are not hopeless and bleak, but instead always deeply inspiring and human.

Although the ‘Karlovy Vary Film Festival’ awarded him the 2017 Crystal Globe Award for outstanding contribution to cinema together with his screenwriter Paul Laverty, Loach unfortunately remains a little-known filmmaker in Czechia. It's an undeniable shame, because his work can teach Czech audiences and filmmakers how to approach the lives we'd rather look away from – and that even social realism can offer moments of beauty and hope.”