poverty and social class

His kitchen-sink realism films like 'I, Daniel Blake' and 'Kes' expose the grinding struggles of working-class life and state indifference with unflinching compassion.

Films like 'Shoplifters' and 'After the Storm' examine poverty, family survival, and social invisibility with tender humanism and subtle social critique.

His neorealist masterpieces 'Bicycle Thieves' and 'Umberto D.' depict post-war poverty with poetic dignity while revealing systemic abandonment of the poor.