Ken Loach has spent more than fifty years making films about ordinary people, systems of power and the cost of injustice. Working mostly in Britain but also across Europe and Latin America, he developed a style that blurs the line between documentary and drama — naturalistic performances, real locations and social situations drawn from contemporary life.
His career spans the television dramas of the 1960s, the kitchen-sink films of the 1970s and 80s, and the award-winning political dramas of recent decades. This list covers all twenty-seven of his feature films and major television works available on this site, presented in chronological order.
1. Cathy Come Home (1966)
Cathy leaves her overcrowded family home in search of a better future in London, where she meets Reg, a cheerful lorry driver. The two fall in love, marry, and begin building what appears to be a stable working-class life together.
Their happiness quickly unravels after Reg suffers an injury at work and loses his job. Unable to keep up with rent payments, the family is forced into increasingly desperate living conditions as landlords refuse to accept tenants with children.
Best for: When you want to understand how the welfare state can fail the most vulnerable.
2. Poor Cow (1967)
Joy, a young working-class woman living in London, struggles to build a stable life while trapped in poverty and an unhappy marriage. Her husband Tom is a violent criminal who spends much of his time in prison, leaving Joy to raise their young son, Jonny, largely on her own.
Seeking escape from her difficult circumstances, she begins a relationship with Dave, one of Tom’s criminal associates, and briefly experiences the affection and freedom missing from her marriage.
Best for: When you want raw British realism about a young woman’s difficult life.
3. Kes (1969)
Billy Casper is a troubled teenage boy growing up in a poor mining town in Yorkshire. Neglected at home and struggling at school, he is frequently bullied by his classmates and mistreated by his older half-brother Jud.
With little hope for his future, Billy finds an unexpected sense of purpose when he discovers a young kestrel that he names Kes. Billy begins training the bird using a falconry book borrowed from the library, gradually developing a remarkable bond with Kes.
Best for: When you want one of the most moving British films ever made.
4. Family Life (1971)
Janice Baildon is a young working-class woman living with her parents in London, where tensions within her family and the pressures of everyday life leave her increasingly isolated and distressed. Unable to find understanding or support at home, she begins to struggle with her sense of identity and her ability to cope with the expectations placed upon her.
Best for: When you want a film that questions psychiatry and family dynamics.
5. Black Jack (1979)
In 1750s Yorkshire, Tolly, a young boy living in a remote village, becomes caught up in the strange and dangerous world of Black Jack, a mysterious Frenchman who has escaped from an asylum. After Tolly’s grandfather dies, he is sent to work for a local mill owner, where he encounters Black Jack and becomes involved in a series of adventures that take him far beyond the familiar world of his village.
Best for: When you want Loach’s rarely-seen period adventure set in 18th century England.
6. Looks and Smiles (1981)
Mick and Alan are two young men trying to find their place in Sheffield during a period of high unemployment and social uncertainty. Mick has just left school and dreams of building a better future, while Alan struggles to find steady work and faces the frustration of a generation with few opportunities.
Their friendship provides some stability as they navigate relationships, family pressures, and the difficulties of adult life.
Best for: When you want to see the effects of Thatcherite unemployment on youth.
7. Fatherland (1986)
Klaus Drittemann is an East German singer who travels to West Germany in search of his father, a celebrated poet who disappeared from his life years earlier. After settling in Hamburg, Klaus becomes involved with a group of musicians and begins a relationship with Emma, a journalist who helps him investigate his father’s mysterious past.
As Klaus searches for answers, he discovers that his father’s disappearance is connected to the political divisions and compromises of postwar Germany.
Best for: When you want political drama about a folk singer’s journey to the West.
8. Hidden Agenda (1990)
In Northern Ireland during the height of the Troubles, American human rights lawyer Paul Sullivan is killed while investigating allegations of British security force abuses. His girlfriend Ingrid Jessner, a political activist, survives the attack and becomes determined to uncover the truth behind his death.
Best for: When you want a Loach thriller dealing with Irish politics and cover-ups.
9. Riff-Raff (1991)
Stevie is a young Scottish construction worker who arrives in London looking for a fresh start after being released from prison. He finds work on a dangerous building site, joining a group of casual laborers who struggle with low wages, poor working conditions, and the constant threat of unemployment.
Despite their hardships, the workers develop a strong sense of friendship and solidarity.
Best for: When you want sharp social comedy from a building site crew.
10. Raining Stones (1993)
Bob Williams is unemployed and living in working-class Manchester, scraping together money through whatever odd jobs and half-legal schemes come his way—from rustling a sheep to sell as mutton, to unclogging the foul drains of the local Catholic church for free. When his van is stolen, his difficulties deepen just as his young daughter Coleen’s First Communion approaches, and Bob becomes fixated on buying her a proper white communion dress, whatever the cost.
Best for: When you want to see working-class dignity under impossible pressure.
11. Ladybird Ladybird (1994)
Maggie Conlan is a fiercely protective but volatile single mother, already scarred by a childhood of abuse and years of violent relationships that cost her custody of her four children by four different men. When she meets Jorge, a gentle Latin American refugee who offers her the first non-abusive relationship she’s ever known, she finally begins to see a path toward stability and happiness.
But Maggie’s turbulent history follows her into this new life.
Best for: When you want a devastating portrait of a mother fighting the system.
12. Land and Freedom (1995)
Summer 1936, a young unemployed communist, David, leaves his hometown Liverpool to join the fight against fascism in Spain. He joins an international group of Militia-men and women, the POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista).
After being wounded he goes to Barcelona, where he decides to join another group of fighters. They remain in Barcelona and end up fighting other anti-fascist groups. David is disappointed and decides to go back to his old band.
Best for: When you want a personal story of idealism in the Spanish Civil War.
13. Carla’s Song (1996)
George Lennox, a headstrong Glasgow bus driver, develops a fascination with Carla, a Nicaraguan passenger who often can’t afford her fare. When George lets her ride for free, his growing insubordination costs him his job—but by then he’s already discovered that Carla is far more troubled than he first realized.
Scarred both physically and emotionally, suicidal, and haunted by the disappearance of her boyfriend Antonio, a Sandinista believed to have been kidnapped by the U.S.
Best for: When you want a love story set against the Nicaraguan revolution.
14. My Name Is Joe (1998)
Joe Kavanagh is an unemployed, recovering alcoholic in Glasgow, staying sober one day at a time and pouring his restless energy into coaching a hopeless but spirited local football team. His life brightens when he meets Sarah, a health visitor whose stability and warmth offer him a real shot at a different kind of future—one neither of them takes lightly, given the scars both carry from their pasts.
Best for: When you want a tender drama about recovery, love and community in Glasgow.
15. Bread and Roses (2000)
Maya, a young Mexican woman, crosses the border illegally to join her tougher, more cautious older sister Rosa, who works as a janitor cleaning one of downtown Los Angeles’s gleaming corporate towers. Landing a job cleaning alongside her, Maya soon meets Sam Shapiro, a charismatic and anarchic union organizer trying to unionize the building’s overworked, underpaid, and largely undocumented cleaning staff under the simple rallying cry: “No Justice, No Peace.
Best for: When you want a film about immigrant workers organising for their rights.
16. The Navigators (2001)
In South Yorkshire, five close-knit railway maintenance workers watch their working lives quietly unravel as British Rail is privatized. When the familiar company sign is swapped for one reading “East Midlands Infrastructure,” the men are told little will change—but as new management pushes customer-service platitudes alongside relentless cost-cutting, it quickly becomes clear that job security, safety standards, and decades of camaraderie are all up for grabs.
Best for: When you want to see railway privatisation through the eyes of workers.
17. Sweet Sixteen (2002)
Fifteen-year-old Liam counts down the days until his mother Jean’s release from prison, dreaming of finally getting her away from her abusive boyfriend and the poverty-stricken Scottish town of Greenock, where the two of them could start over in a caravan by the sea. To fund that dream, Liam turns to selling stolen cigarettes and, increasingly, drugs—dragging his best friend Pinball and his older sister Chantelle into an escalating scheme that quickly outgrows his control.
Best for: When you want an unflinching portrait of a young man in Greenock.
18. Ae Fond Kiss… (2004)
Casim Khan, a second-generation Pakistani-Scottish DJ in Glasgow, dreams of opening his own club while his devout Muslim parents make plans for him to marry his cousin Jasmine, soon to arrive from Pakistan in an arranged match. Those plans collapse the moment he falls for Roisin Hanlon, an Irish Catholic music teacher at his younger sister’s school, pulling Casim into an impossible position between the woman he loves and the family and faith he was raised to honor.
Best for: When you want a love story that honestly explores cultural and religious difference.
19. The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
In 1920s Ireland, Damien O’Donovan is packing his bags for a promising new career as a doctor in London when he witnesses British Black and Tan forces beat a friend to death for the crime of speaking Irish Gaelic. The killing shatters his plan to stay out of the growing conflict, and Damien abandons medicine to join his older brother Teddy in the Irish Republican Army’s guerrilla campaign against the ruthless colonial forces sent to crush Ireland’s bid for independence.
Best for: When you want a masterful film about the Irish War of Independence.
20. It’s a Free World… (2007)
Angie is a young British woman who loses her job at a recruitment agency after a confrontation with her manager. Determined to become independent, she decides to start her own employment agency with her friend and former colleague Rose.
The two women begin recruiting migrant workers from Eastern Europe, connecting them with low-paid jobs in Britain. At first, Angie sees the business as an opportunity to build a better life for herself and her young son.
Best for: When you want to see complicity and exploitation in the gig economy.
21. Looking for Eric (2009)
Eric Bishop is a lonely Manchester postman whose life has gradually fallen apart. Struggling with family problems, an unhappy relationship, and a sense that he has lost control of his life, Eric finds himself turning to memories of his footballing hero, the legendary French striker Eric Cantona, for inspiration.
Best for: When you want something lighter from Loach: football, friendship and fantasy.
22. Route Irish (2010)
Fergus is a former British soldier who works as a private security contractor in Iraq. When his closest friend Frankie is killed while working in Baghdad, Fergus refuses to accept the official explanation of his death.
Haunted by their shared experiences and convinced that something does not add up, he returns to Liverpool determined to uncover what really happened.
Best for: When you want a thriller examining the dark world of private military contractors.
23. The Angels’ Share (2012)
Robbie is a young man from Glasgow who is given one last chance to turn his life around after narrowly avoiding a prison sentence. Determined to build a better future for himself and his girlfriend Leonie, he struggles to escape the cycle of violence and poverty that has shaped his life.
During a community service program, Robbie meets Rhino, Albert, and Mo, a group of young offenders who become his unlikely friends.
Best for: When you want social comedy with real warmth from Glasgow’s outskirts.
24. Jimmy’s Hall (2014)
In 1930s Ireland, Jimmy Gralton returns to his rural hometown after years of living in the United States. Hoping to live quietly and help his elderly mother, Jimmy soon finds himself drawn back into the local community.
When people ask him to reopen the Pearse-Connolly Hall, a community center he had previously established, he agrees despite opposition from powerful local figures. The hall quickly becomes a place where young people can dance, study, listen to music, and discuss ideas freely.
Best for: When you want the story of a real Irish radical returning home in the 1930s.
25. I, Daniel Blake (2016)
Daniel Blake, a 59-year-old widowed carpenter in Newcastle, is declared unfit to work after suffering a heart attack—yet the state’s welfare bureaucracy still deems him “fit for work” and denies his benefits, trapping him in an absurd, Kafkaesque loop of appeals, forms, and phone hold music, made worse by his complete unfamiliarity with computers in an increasingly online-only system.
Best for: When you want the most important British film of the last decade.
26. Sorry We Missed You (2019)
Ricky Turner, still fighting debt left over from the 2008 financial crash, sees a way out when he’s offered the chance to become a self-employed delivery driver—buying his own van and working as an “independent contractor” who is, in practice, controlled down to the minute by a handheld scanner and punishing delivery quotas.
Best for: When you want to understand what the gig economy really costs families.
27. The Old Oak (2023)
TJ Ballantyne is hanging on by his fingertips to The Old Oak, the last surviving pub in a former County Durham mining village where thirty years of decline have left shops boarded up and hope in short supply. When a group of Syrian refugees are relocated into the village’s cheap, empty houses without warning, long-simmering resentment among the locals boils over, and the pub itself becomes contested ground in the growing rift.
Best for: When you want Loach’s final film: a pub, a dying town, and Syrian refugees.
