Recognised for their 21-year-long collaboration which has resulted in more than a dozen critically acclaimed films, Loach commended the festival for awarding him jointly with Laverty. “Too often all the attention goes to the director,” Loach said, adding that it’s teamwork that results in “the best things we do together.”

Loach is known for tackling issues such as class, nationality and political discord in his films, and he often espouses solidarity and alliance across social divides – a prescient theme that the director addressed in his speech.

“Increasingly, we find these ideas are under threat,” said Loach, “particularly with the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe, which sees waves of people arriving on the continent “looking for solidarity. Let’s hope we have the generosity to say together, ‘Welcome,’ instead of sending them back.”
Loach and Laverty recently made short films for Jeremy Corbyn in his campaign against Theresa May, providing an alternate perspective from the constant attacks against Corbyn by May supporters and the U.K. tabloid press that portrayed him as a threat.

“I think reality is imposing itself,” Laverty said to reporters, commenting on the struggle of working class people forced to commute for hours due to London’s high housing prices. “There is now such a crisis for young people in housing, for example, that all the propaganda in the world can’t change that.”

Laverty proffered that working class people were turning away from conservative politicians because their needs and being ignored. Loach remarked that it is too soon to tell whether the tide is also turning against the populist, xenophobic parties and attitudes that have been rising in Britain for the past several years, but ventured, “It could be a turning point. I think we’re all working as hard as we can to make it a turning point.”

The director opined that citizens need to stay well-informed and not rely solely on mainstream media to give them information. He espoused the virtues of alternative sources such as social media so that citizens can receive multiple viewpoints and reject the far-eight-wing press.
“If that can spread and really gather strength,” said the director, “then the spirit of 2017 would really be something special.”