bad luck

His films explore how ordinary people are destroyed by circumstance and fate beyond their control, from the random violence in 'No Country for Old Men' to the absurd misfortunes in 'The Big Lebowski'.

He examines how economic misfortune and life's cruel unpredictability trap families in cycles of poverty and hardship, as seen in 'Shoplifters' and 'The Third Murder'.

His socially conscious cinema documents how systemic injustice and bad luck compound to destroy the lives of working-class people in films like 'I, Daniel Blake' and 'Kes'.