Nominated for the 2023 Palme d’Or and rumoured to be the renowned director’s last film (and at 87 years old who can blame the guy), Ken Loach’s new film The Old Oak is playing in this year’s British Film Festival.
In a struggling northern English town the local pub The Old Oak becomes a centrepoint for both strife and solidarity as some downtrodden locals kick up a fuss at the influx of Syrian asylum-seekers into the village. Pub owner TJ is determined to help Yara and her family assimilate and feel welcome in the village, despite tensions rising with his xenophobic regulars.
Like all Ken Loach films, it depicts the reality of the struggling working class in England, but also shows us the way to overcome divisions and live happier: community. The village is one of many that never recovered from the end of the mining era, with foreign developers buying up property for tuppence and families finding it difficult to make ends meet. TJ can’t sell his pub, and relies on a regular group of old boys who come in daily for “a quiet pint, like”. TJ is one of a few who have the courage to try and bring the village together, in a win-win scenario that helps the Syrian refugees make new friends and feel welcome, and helps the lonely, beaten-down locals to recharge their social bar (and feed a few hungry mouths too). But the old boys, their pride snubbed by TJ’s compassion for the newcomers, aren’t happy about it.
What I love about Ken Loach films is the reality of them. There’s no uber-fancy cinematography, there’s no complicated performances, no orchestra-swelling score or clever transitions. It’s just real. Shots and frames, deliveries and acting, music that fits and gentle fade-to-blacks that are all in service of the story. The dialogue is perfectly real, the characters are real, and the story is so gut-wrenchingly real! As an audience member you’re effortlessly transported to the brick houses, the symmetrical streets, the wan sunlight, and into the hearts of the characters trying to live there. Whilst The Old Oak definitely has a spark of fight in it, striving for a peaceful, compassionate community despite all the hardships, it is one of his more sombre films, filled with grief and struggle, yet always with moments of that all-important motivator – hope.
Catch The Old Oak and many more at the Cunard British Film Festival, screening at Palace Cinemas from November 1-29.
Sydney Times and Tickets | Cunard British Film Festival 2023 – link for Sydney screenings
Review by Kena