Sorry We Missed You

Movie
German title	Sorry We Missed You
Original title	Sorry We Missed You
Country of production	United Kingdom , France , Belgium
original language	English
Publishing year	2019
length	101 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12 ; JMK 12
Rod
Director	Ken Loach
script	Paul Laverty
production	Rebecca O'Brien
music	George Fenton
camera	Robbie Ryan
cut	Jonathan Morris
occupation
	Kris Hitchen : Ricky Turner; Debbie Honeywood : Abbie Turner; Rhys Stone : Seb; Katie Proctor : Lisa Jane; Charlie Richmond : Henry Morgan; Alfie Dobson : Jack O'Brien;

Sorry We Missed You is a film drama directed by Ken Loach , which premiered on May 16, 2019 as part of the Cannes International Film Festival and competed for the Palme d' Or.

action

The shooting took place in Byker in Newcastle upon Tyne , among other things in the Shields Road

Ricky Turner and his family are battling the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis . The family is in debt, and when the father gets a new job as a parcel deliverer, they finally have the chance to end their misery. He wants to run a franchise as a freelance driver and hopes that this will regain a little of his independence. But the conditions in the brave new world of work are merciless. He has to be on the move six days a week and 14 hours a day. His wife Abbie's car has to be sold for the new van he needs for work. Ricky's new job is harder than expected, but his wife Abbie's work as a nurse is not easy either, so that family life suffers.

The son Seb skips school, goes spraying graffiti with friends and goes shoplifting. Ricky can hardly take care of these problems because he cannot actually afford to take time off because he has to provide a replacement driver for absent hours or pay a hefty fine. One morning the key to the van disappeared. Ricky can't drive and has to pay a fine. He accuses Seb of taking the key and hits him after an argument. It later turns out that the daughter Lisa Jane had hidden the key so that everything would be as it was before.

One day Ricky is mugged, robbed and beaten up on his van. His wife takes him to the hospital , but the waiting time for treatment is hours and hours. He needs to find out that the customers' stolen packages are insured, but he has to replace the destroyed £ 1,000 scanner out of pocket. The next day, despite his injuries, he leaves for work, even though Abbie and Seb beg him not to.

production

Staff, idea and film title

“It's about a family in need. They fight back, they do their best. [...] We wanted to tell a story that would happen to many people. It's not an extreme story. "

- Director Ken Loach

Directed by Ken Loach , the screenplay is by Paul Laverty . Loach told the film service that the way the work has changed is unfair. In the past, people would have had jobs that were safe, with protection against dismissal and salaries that were enough to support a family. However, that has changed decisively: “Work has become precarious. There is no longer any guarantee that you will have a job tomorrow or not. The salaries have fallen and you don't know whether you will earn the same in the next week. ”His film is about a family that is in need, but who is resisting and doing its best. But in the end, the father is a prisoner in his own truck. They wanted to tell a story that happened to many people and not an extreme story, so Loach, because what they describe happens to millions of families: “In Great Britain 14 million people live in poverty, including four million children. 1.5 million people are completely destitute, they do not have the opportunity to buy food or a roof over their heads. "The film title (German:" Unfortunately we did not meet you ") refers to the notification card that the Posting a parcel post to the customer after an unsuccessful delivery attempt.

Cast and filming

The leading role of Ricky Turner was cast with Kris Hitchen , that of his wife Abbie with Debbie Honeywood . Rhys Stone plays her son Seb, Katie Proctor her daughter Liza Jane. Hitchen had previously worked as an actor, but had mostly worked as a plumber, and he owned a delivery truck, according to the director. Honeywood works as an assistant teacher with children who have learning difficulties and had little acting experience. The two children come from local schools. The German dubbing was created by Horst Geisler's dialogue direction on behalf of TaunusFilm Synchron GmbH, Berlin. Florian Clyde lends his voice to Ricky Turner in the German version.

The shooting took place in Byker in Newcastle upon Tyne , here among other things in the Shields Road, and on the premises of Team Valley in Gateshead in the north east of England. Loach had already filmed Me, Daniel Blake in Byker , a district from which Dave Johns , the main actor in the film, also came from, which also dealt with poverty reduction, the struggle for survival and basic human rights. It seemed to Loach a good idea to use similar locations, with people from the same cultural background. Tim Lindemann of epd Film remarks that Loach, who brought the realistic style of the British New Wave back to the cinemas in the late 1980s, has been brilliantly talking about the hardship of life at the lower end of the social spectrum for a good 50 years, as most recently in the drama I, Daniel Blake , which he describes as an authentic representation of precarious living conditions. Regarding the location of Newcastle, the director said: “The story could take place anywhere, but Newcastle is good because the old industries like coal, steel and shipbuilding have disappeared there. There is a long tradition of industrial action, the dialect is very strong, the language is funny, they have a football team, Newcastle United, that everyone supports. "

Film music and publication

The score was composed by George Fenton , with whom Loach had already worked on several of his films, most recently on Angels' Share - A Sip for the Angels and Me, Daniel Blake .

The film premiered on May 16, 2019 at the Cannes International Film Festival , where it competed for the Palme d'Or. In August 2019 it was presented at the Melbourne International Film Festival. In September 2019, the film was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Masters section and presented that same month at the Leipzig Film Art Fair. The film was presented at the Hamburg Film Festival at the end of September and beginning of October 2019 . A theatrical release is planned in France on October 23, 2019, in the Netherlands on November 14, 2019 and in Germany on January 30, 2020. In the United Kingdom, the film will be distributed by Entertainment One.

reception

Reviews

Ken Loach at the premiere for the film in Cannes in May 2019

So far, the film has received approval from 88 percent of all Rotten Tomatoes critics and achieved an average rating of 7.8 out of a possible 10 points. In the critics survey published by Screen on the festival entries in Cannes, he received 2.5 out of 4 possible points.

Andreas Busche from the Tagesspiegel writes that Ken Loach's film about the struggle for survival of a family from the lower middle class is one of his most beautiful works of recent times: “Calm and free from class pathos, Loach tells with porous humanity that comes only thanks to emphatic everyday observations. There are no crises to deal with, everyday life itself is one single crisis situation. The money is barely enough in the double-income household to make ends meet. "

In an article in the mdr culture film magazine from February 1, 2020, it is said that Loach, who stands for haunting social dramas in which his middle class protagonists are always helpless and powerless at the mercy of the overpowering system, shows with the film “that he has his keen eye has not lost social deformations. "

Michael Meyns from the Gilde deutscher Filmkunsttheater writes that Loach puts his characters one obstacle after another in their way , as in the book of Job , and that is precisely why he is so hard, socially critical and, above all, realistic than ever before: “Loach describes them with the greatest accuracy Structures of the modern gig economy , in which employees are fooled into believing the advantages of self-employment, but which in reality lead to a reduction in social standards and workers' rights. ”In the neoliberal striving for constant optimization and savings, all means are used in the film to disadvantage employees According to the mobile nurse Abbie, who is not paid by the hour, but per patient, says Meyns. He let the family slide further and further into the crisis, Ricky's anger is getting stronger and stronger, the working hours of the parents are getting longer, so that the two children are more and more neglected. However, no one in particular is to blame for the evil, even Ricky's boss at the parcel service is only part of a system that has long since lost its humanity in the pursuit of profit maximization. Even if the location of Sorry We Missed You may be England, the structures can be found all over Europe, in all countries where social systems are becoming increasingly weaker and profit thinking has long since become a raison d'être that outshines everything, said Meyns.

Use in class

The online portal kinofenster.de certain Sorry We Missed You Movie of the Month February 2020 recommended the film for teaching social studies, economics, politics, ethics and religion and provides this material from the 8th grade. There the film journalist and film educator Holger Twele writes, without melodrama, but with a lot of compassion, Loach tells a universal story about pressure to perform and exploitation, care shortages and charity , humanity and human dignity .