Looking for Eric

Looking for Eric (2009) is a Ken Loach comedy-drama you can watch online on iFILM — part working-class Manchester portrait, part unlikely ghost story. Steve Evets plays Eric Bishop, a postman whose life has quietly fallen apart: estranged from the family he left behind, out of his depth with his stepsons, and barely keeping himself together.

Then Eric Cantona shows up in his bedroom. Not as a memory or a poster — as a presence, philosophical and unhurried, dispensing life advice the way he once sprayed long passes: with complete conviction. Cantona plays himself, and the joke never gets old because Loach means it. The football legend becomes a vessel for something the film takes seriously — the idea that men in working communities rarely get permission to fall apart, let alone to ask for help.

The film picked up a special jury prize at Cannes 2009 and stands as one of Loach's most approachable films without sacrificing any of his politics. Stream Looking for Eric (2009) on iFILM.