The Old Oak

country, year

UK, 2023

genre

drama

running time

113′

directed by

Ken Loach

languages

English

subtitles 

Slovene subtitles

about the film

The Old Oak is not only the last pub still standing, but also the only remaining public space where people can meet in what was once a thriving mining community. The Old Oak becomes a place of friction when Syrian refugees are placed in the town without prior notice and the old and new community are suddenly forced to coexist. 

what was said about the film

»The film is about conflict, deprivation and alienation, from neglect, from the political people who run things, from poverty. It is an area of England in the Northeast, which is an old mining area where the mines closed. And the right-wing party, the Tories, that closed the mines, were determined not only to close down the industry, but to destroy the communities. The area has just been neglected for the last 40 years. Although there’s still the spirit of the solidarity of the miners when they were there, there’s also dissatisfaction and lack of hope. And into that area comes placed refugees from the Syrian war who have all those negative feelings, plus the trauma of being in a war and placed somewhere where most of them don’t speak English. How do they cope and how do those two groups find a way of living together, and can they? It is how those interactions play out, really, with the film of us.«

  • Ken Loach, interviewed for Cannes film festival 

»Loach might be the angriest he’s ever been, blaming not just the politicians but even the British people themselves for rolling over for increasingly right-wing, authoritarian regimes. /…/ In that respect, The Old Oak is not asking us to settle our differences but to accept our similarities in a world being carved up by the wealthy. If this is Loach’s legacy, it’s a good one, and you can sum it up in just three words: strength, solidarity and resistance.«

  •  Damon Wise, Deadline

trailer

about the author

Ken Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialism are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (Poor Cow, 1967), homelessness (Cathy Come Home, 1966), and labour rights (Riff-Raff, 1991, and The Navigators, 2001). Loach’s film Kes (1969) was voted the seventh-greatest British film of the 20th century in a poll by the British Film Institute. Two of his films, The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) and I, Daniel Blake (2016), received the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making him one of only nine filmmakers to win the award twice. Ken Loach has always been committed to workers’ issues. His coverage of the Great British Miners’ Strike in 1984 and 1985 included a critical look at both the political leadership and the trade union leadership at the time, which led to the unwillingness to show some of the films he made about the strike. With The Old Oak he returns to what are now isolated mining communities and reflects on what life is like there more than thirty years later.

festivals and awards

Cannes film festival 

Locarno film festival: audience award

Valladolid international film festival: audience award and best actor award

Palić film festival: audience award

Calgary international film festival: audience award

Ghent film festival: audience award

BAFTA nomination for best british film of the year

Lumières Award: nomination for Best International Co-Production

filmography

  • Poor Cow (1967)
  • Kes (1969) 
  • Family Life (1971)
  • Black Jack (1979) 
  • Looks and Smiles (1981)
  • Fatherland (1986)
  • Hidden Agenda (1990)
  • Riff-Raff (1991)
  • Raining Stones (1993)
  • Ladybird, Ladybird (1994)
  • Land and Freedom (1995)
  • Carla’s Song (1996)
  • My Name Is Joe (1998)
  • Bread and Roses (2000)
  • The Navigators (2001)
  • Sweet Sixteen (2002)
  • 11’09″01 September 11 (segment “United Kingdom”) (2002)
  • Ae Fond Kiss… (2004)
  • Tickets (2005), along with Ermanno Olmi and Abbas Kiarostami
  • The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
  • It’s a Free World… (2007)
  • Looking for Eric (2009)
  • Route Irish (2010)
  • The Angels’ Share (2012)
  • The Spirit of ’45 (2013)
  • Jimmy’s Hall (2014)
  • I, Daniel Blake (2016)
  • Sorry We Missed You (2019)
  • The Old Oak (2023)