The Old Oak (15)

TJ Ballantyne was born and bred in his village in Country Durham and he has never left the close-knit community, becoming a valued leader following the 1984 miners strikes. He owns The Old Oak, the last remaining pub. The arrival of a bus of Syrian refugees exposes division and despair, leading to an ugly confrontation between 20-something new arrival Yara and a local man. TJ risks the wrath of old friend Charlie to help Yara.

LondonNet Film Review

The Old Oak (15) Film Review from LondonNet

With an illustrious career behind the camera stretching back almost 60 years, Ken Loach has repeatedly celebrated the ebb and flow of British working-class life on screen, collecting the Cannes Film Festival’s coveted Palme d’Or twice for The Wind That Shakes The Barley and I, Daniel Blake. The Old Oak is his swansong and reunites the Warwickshire-born filmmaker with screenwriter Paul Laverty for a third consecutive study of solidarity and strife in the north-east of England. His final feature may be emotionally underpowered compared with earlier work including Sorry We Missed You but Loach’s farewell is another rousing call to arms for compassion and acceptance set in 2016 County Durham as anti-immigration sentiment takes root in a former mining community following years of austerity…

An impressive ensemble cast led by Dave Turner as the local publican, who is struggling to make ends meet following the breakdown of his marriage, lends authenticity to a familiar story of division torn from headlines of the time when the first Syrian refugees arrived in the UK and were met with hostility. Earthy humour in Laverty’s script infuses a culture built on unity and hardship while Loach delivers familiar body blows before he dons kid gloves for a surprisingly sentimental final flurry.

TJ Ballantyne (Turner) was born and bred in his village and he has never left the close-knit community, becoming a valued leader following the 1984 miners strikes and the subsequent closure of the pit, which led to the collapse of the local economy. The Old Oak is the last remaining pub and as its wearied owner, TJ pours all his time and effort into the watering hole, which he shares with a scruffy four-legged companion named Marra. The arrival of a bus of Syrian refugees exposes division and despair, leading to an ugly confrontation between 20-something new arrival Yara (Elba Mari) and a local man, who callously breaks her treasured camera.

Yara is the eldest child of her family and speaks English, translating for her mother Fatima (Amna Al Ali) and siblings. Her courage inspires TJ and he risks the wrath of old friend Charlie (Trevor Fox) to help Yara repair her camera. As tensions rise, TJ’s family friend Laura (Claire Rodgerson) works closely with him and Yara to establish a community food kitchen in the pub’s neglected back room where families and children can enjoy a hot meal surrounded by photographs of the village’s proud mining heritage.

The Old Oak incorporates touchstones from Loach’s distinguished career, anchored by Turner’s committed performance and winning on-screen chemistry with Mari. Political fires that raged defiantly in earlier work flicker less furiously here but still leave scorch marks as TJ and his neighbours listen with mounting ire and frustration to the death knell of collective strength.

– Sarah Lee