Ken Loach Starts Up Movie Doc 'Spirit of '45'

LONDON -- Veteran British director Ken Loach is trawling the archives for his latest cinema project, a feature-length documentary titled Spirit of ’45.

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Bankrolled by the BFI Film Fund, Channel 4 and the broadcaster’s stand-alone movie-production arm Film4, Loach’s film is about a new socialism that emerged in the U.K. as World War II came to an end in 1945.

Loach, a Cannes Film Festival regular whose The Wind That Shakes the Barley won the Palme d'Or in 2006, plans to use footage from Britain’s regional and national archives alongside photographs, sound recordings and contemporary interviews to curate a rich political and social narrative.

The aim is to “illuminate and celebrate” a period of “unprecedented community spirit” in the U.K., the impact of which has endured for many years and is still deeply resonant today, according to the filmmaker.

Spirit of ’45 is a collaboration between Fly Film Co. and Sixteen Films.

Kate Ogborn (The Deep Blue Sea), Lisa Marie Russo (Of Time and the City) and Rebecca O’Brien (The Wind That Shakes the Barley) are producing.

Development support came from the now defunct U.K. Film Council and EM Media.