The Navigators

A film directed by Ken Loach about a group of British Rail trackworkers coping with privatisation, competition, contracting out ...

Get to the film - it's not likely to have a long season

The Navigators follows a Yorkshire gang of track maintenance workers whose easy camaraderie and humorous banter dissolve into terrible mutual betrayal during the privatisation of British Rail.

The film opens with the men being told by their supervisor Harpic (Sean Glenn) that they no longer work for British Rail but for East Midland Infrastructure, and will have to accept new work practices and contracts. They realise that the changes in their working lives and re-organisation of the rail network will affect their homes and families irrevocably.

As their understanding of rail privatisation begins to unravel, their cheerful sense of camaraderie begins to fragment. Under the new regime, the customer and company profits take precedence over rail safety and the welfare of track workers. While in principle this sounds great, in reality this new arrangmenet is implemented chaotically, resulting in an inevitable tragedy.

Ken Loach studied Law at Oxford, then trained as an actor and director at the BBC. Politically active, with Tony Barrett he produced a series of docu-dramas with great impact on British society in the 1960s. He made his directorial debut in 1967 with Poor Cow. In 1990 and 1993 he won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival with the political thriller set in Ireland Hidden Agenda and the powerful Raining Stones.

In 1992 and 1995 he won the Felix for Best European Film of the Year for hsi comedy Riff-Raff and the sweeping political romance Land and Freedom. In 2001 The Navigators was chosen for official competition in both Venice and Toronto Film Festivals. In 2002 the script by Paul Laverty won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival for Loach's moving drama Sweet Sixteen.