The Old Oak:
Ken Loach's last call for solidarity
BTS of The Old Oak (2023), directed by Ken Loach
The Old Oak marks the final chapter of the unofficial "austerity trilogy" between director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty, as well as the conclusion to Loach's half-century career. From his inauspicious beginnings as a director for low-budget BBC television dramas in the mid-1960s, Loach's dedication to social realism has made him one of England's most prolific and politically engaging filmmakers. An outspoken critic of government policies that affect the working class, his oeuvre showcases the harsh realities of poverty and social injustice. His commitment to these subjects has come partly due to a lack of systemic changes over the last several decades. Kes (1969), a piercing critique of the education system, and I, Daniel Blake (2016), an indictment of the bureaucratic welfare state, remain relevant in exploring the limited career options available to the British working class despite taking place in vastly different eras. The Old Oak finds Loach again examining Britain's struggling civic agencies while facing our ethical responsibilities in the face of a global refugee crisis.
Tommy Joe Ballantyne (affectionately called "TJ") owns The Old Oak, a pub in a once-thriving English mining community. With the closing of the local church, The Old Oak is the last remaining public space where villagers can meet and unwind. Tensions rise when Syrian refugees are housed in the community's empty properties, stoking xenophobic backlash amongst the locals. Much to the disgust of his pub's regulars, TJ does his best to help by facilitating the supply of essential goods to families arriving in a new country with only the clothes on their backs. One of the refugees is a young aspiring photographer named Yara. Her father is still in Syria, a political prisoner under the Assad regime. Yara finds solace in taking photos of the locals. Her camera, a gift from her father, grounds Yara in her past while offering a way to observe her new community. When Yara's camera is smashed by a local hooligan, TJ offers to help, and an unlikely friendship blossoms between the two. Their relationship is at the film's emotional center; TJ slowly becomes a father figure to Yara, who in turn helps give the lonely barkeep a newfound sense of purpose.
Dave Turner as 'TJ', on set of The Old Oak (2023)
The film can be frustrating to watch. We go to the cinema, in part, to escape and forget life's grim realities for a couple hours. But the fractured community we see in The Old Oak reflects our own, in which the "us vs them" anti-immigrant and anti-refugee right-wing sentiment expressed by the film's locals is the product of a global political movement. National populism fueled the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump in 2016. In February of this year, far-right protesters clashed with British authorities at a Merseyside hotel housing asylum seekers. Multiple protests were held in New York throughout August: clashes with police against a new relief center for asylum seekers in Queens, rallies outside a Staten Island senior center housing 15 asylum-seeking families, culminating in large crowds gathering outside Mayor Eric Adams' residence. Their belief is refugees threaten national identity, security, and resources.
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Charlie, one of TJ's high-school mates, complains, "We've been in this village all our lives, and we're supposed to share it with that lot. We don't even know them." Another patron refers to the Syrians as "parasites." The hostility is upsetting to watch. Families who fled their homes with few possessions to a new country to escape a bloody war are accosted by strangers blind with rage. Incensed by populist rhetoric and fear-mongering, the villagers in The Old Oak rile themselves up on social media before going out to verbally harass and physically assault refugees who are just going about their day. It's a tense drama, with an underlying feeling that the town is simmering to a boiling point that will explode at any moment. It's a feeling that reflects our own moment, in which there's an overwhelming feeling that tragedy can and will occur at any moment. There's a buildup in the village of resentment towards people just trying to survive as if the survival of others is at direct odds with their own. There is also an apparent instinct to center oneself during international crises, focusing foremost on how we as individuals will be affected instead of considering the well-being of others. One of the pub regulars in The Old Oak declares, "Charity starts at home," to which TJ responds: "It's not charity. This is solidarity."
Ebla Mari as Yara, on set of The Old Oak (2023)
The hostility and apathy of the villagers are appalling, especially given their history of persecution and solidarity. They were a part of the nationwide miner's strike of 1984-1985, which often saw police violently suppress protests and conduct thousands of arrests. As the strikers struggled to pay for food as union pay ran out, their wives set up support groups to run soup kitchens and provide free meals for children and families. TJ recounts to Yara his mother's saying, "When you eat together, you stick together." It is a charitable act that serves as a reminder that in times of struggle, each community member is one and the same. However, Thatcher's conservative government proved successful in defeating the strike. According to Robert Gildea, a writer and professor of modern history at the University of Oxford, the defeat of the strike "led to the closure of most coal mines, a general deindustrialisation of the economy, the rapid privatisation of nationalised industries, the shattering of organised labour, growing unemployment, the hollowing-out of mining and other working-class communities, and a steady increase in social inequality in British society." TJ's community never recovered from the downfall of the mining industry. Further stoking the flames of division, realtors are selling the foreclosed properties at a low price to foreign property buyers, plummeting the value of homes and businesses. Local gathering spaces gradually closed, unable to financially support themselves, and with them, a sense of community also left. The villagers are left to mourn an entire way of life gone forever.
Scene from The Old Oak (2023)
When TJ experiences his own tragic loss halfway through the film, the refugee families show him more compassion and hospitality than his fellow countrymen. In one of the film's most emotionally poignant scenes, a despondent TJ and Yara discuss hope while sharing a meal. "It is the hope that causes so much pain," she says. Hope is a paradox in which we simultaneously long for a better future while experiencing inevitable adversity and failure in the realization of those hopes. People and institutions are often disappointing. It takes strength and a certain amount of faith to remain hopeful even when no solutions are in sight. Yara explains that she will never give up hope because hopelessness and despair are where tyranny thrives. Loach's hope lies in believing there are more good people than bad. We see this when the community gathers in the film's final scene to march in the Durham Miners' Gala, rallying around a banner of The Old Oak dedicated to the community's past, present, and future. It's an ending that will leave even the most cynical viewer misty-eyed.
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And so, Loach's career ends on a note of optimism (not to be confused with naïvety). He knows better than most that there's still work to be done. "I choose how I live with this camera," Yara tells TJ. It's a line of dialogue that the director himself might as well have said. While studios sought larger, grandiose stories, Loach never left his storytelling roots centering on the working class. Loach's compassionate filmography stands as one of the great acts of solidarity by an artist over the last half-century.
December 2023
By Cameron Yudelson