Clement Attlee led Britain’s Labour Party to victory in 1945, setting in motion a radical transformation from a nation of poverty and dysfunction to a model postwar socialist state. Ken Loach celebrates these achievements, like the founding of the National Health Service, in his 2013 documentary The Spirit of ’45. Yet, the looming economic crises of the 1970s and the election of Margaret Thatcher would transform British society in a completely different way. More than just a nostalgic reverie, Loach’s film brings a contemporary vantage point to an era that seems far too little discussed in these post-Brexit times. (Ken Loach, UK, 2013, 94 min.)
