Photos courtesy IFC Films

When I was growing up in England in the early 1970s as an alienated preteen, a little English movie often shown in school classrooms spoke to me.

It was called “Kes” and was directed by a young filmmaker named Ken Loach.

The story revolved an adolescent alienated from his family, school and society who found an escape, a sense of responsibility and discipline in the sport of falconry, training a hawk he named Kes.

It was a solitary pursuit that enabled the kid to shut out the world around him – or so he thought.

The move included a great football scene, wherein a rotund phys ed teacher would live out his footballing fantasies using the children he was supposed to be teaching as props. I actually knew (and disliked) an alleged teacher like that.

Fast forward to now.

Ken Loach, now 73, has made a movie that in many ways is an adult version of “Kes,” based on an idea from French footballing great Eric Cantona.

It is a simple little tale, but one with wit, heart – and Cantona.

I was honored to chat with Loach recently via phone from his home in Bath (alas a Cantona intervew never came off), where he was waiting for the non-league team’s playoff game that following weekend in Chelmsford, Essex (they won, BTW, and after a subsequent win are now back in the top tier of non-league football in England).

It is a little strange to talk to someone whose work you admired before age 10 and I’m not sure Loach quite grasped the parallels I saw in the two movies.

Nevertheless, if you have the opportunity to see “Looking for Eric” before you become engulfed in all things World Cup, I’d recommend it.

A knowledge of soccer is not necessary to enjoy the film (Loach told me he was surprised at how many women who don’t like the sport, but were dragged to the movie by their husbands or boyfriends, loved the film), but it you know much about Cantona, the movie becomes that much richer.

“It touched people in ways that they didn’t expect to be touched, which was nice,” Loach said.

Read the column about the movie here (for space reasons it didn’t make it into today’s Daily Breeze and will likely run Wednesday) in today’s Daily News and check out the trailer below.

Updated 2:15 p.m. Tuesday

For those planning to see the movie this weekend, the film’s publicity folks just released an update on where and when it will be playing this weekend:

“We just learned the film opens in Pasadena and Encino on May 28. West Hollywood and Santa Monica remain on Friday.