CANNES, France, May 20, 2009 (AFP) - British filmmaker Ken Loach took time off his schedule at Cannes Wednesday to trade ideas with France’s far-left New Anti-Capitalist Party on the upcoming European elections.

“I support them,” Loach told AFP as he went in to meet local NPA leaders in one of Cannes’ grand palace hotels.

“If you look at the situation, people are losing their jobs, the unions in Britain have no programme, you see we need a European answer,” said Loach, whose “Looking for Eric” is a contender for Sunday’s Palme d’Or festival prize.

Last weekend the 72-year-old took his 1984 documentary on the miners’ strikes, “Which Side Are You On ?” to an NPA rally — the party headed by young French postman Olivier Besancenot — in nearby Marseille.

On a terrace overlooking the sea in the Cannes hotel, Loach and one of NPA’s European Parliament candidates traded ideas on how to change the world in these troubled times.

“It’s a moment, it’s a great opportunity to change,” Loach said. “It’s important now to march under a green and red flag.”

“We need to rethink democracy,” said NPA candidate Raoul-Marc Jennar. “If I get elected I’d like to invite you to the European parliament to make a movie about the lobbies.”

“That should be done,” said Loach. “But a documentary, not a film.”

Claire Rosemberg

ccr/rm/har

See also: Ken Loach, “Make the Interests of Ordinary People Come First”