Film
Sorry We Missed You (15)
Dir. Ken Loach, UK-France-Belgium, 2019, 100 mins. Cast. Kris Hitchen, Debbie Honeywood, Rhys Stone.
Ken Loach examines the ruinous cost of zero-hours contracts with gut-wrenching honesty in this incendiary story of one working class family’s struggle. Ricky is a former construction worker. Eager to make a go at being his own boss, he takes a quasi-freelance delivery gig. It means, however, punishing hours, a zero-hours contract with no support or benefits, a ruthless manager and the need to make a substantial investment of his own up front. Struggling to meet strict and unreasonable targets and alarmed by their rising debts, with his wife also facing exploitative pressures in her own job as well, the strain on their family life becomes ever more toxic. Rigorously researched via off-the-record interviews, Loach’s furious, vital and heart-breaking film shines a light on a system that unscrupulously exploits the vulnerable, robbing them of dignity, agency and hope for change.
Ken Loach examines the ruinous cost of zero-hours contracts with gut-wrenching honesty in this incendiary story of one working class family’s struggle. Ricky is a former construction worker. Eager to make a go at being his own boss, he takes a quasi-freelance delivery gig. It means, however, punishing hours, a zero-hours contract with no support or benefits, a ruthless manager and the need to make a substantial investment of his own up front. Struggling to meet strict and unreasonable targets and alarmed by their rising debts, with his wife also facing exploitative pressures in her own job as well, the strain on their family life becomes ever more toxic. Rigorously researched via off-the-record interviews, Loach’s furious, vital and heart-breaking film shines a light on a system that unscrupulously exploits the vulnerable, robbing them of dignity, agency and hope for change.