parental abandonment

His films like 'Nobody Knows' and 'After the Storm' intimately explore the psychological and emotional consequences of parental absence and neglect on children.

Works such as 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' and 'You Were Never Really Here' examine fractured parent-child relationships and the trauma of parental failure.

His socially conscious films like 'I, Daniel Blake' and 'Kes' depict how systemic failures and parental absence devastate vulnerable children's lives.