Rent The Old Oak (2023)

Powerful Social Drama - The Old Oak review by GI

The latest and possibly the last film from director Ken Loach and another blisteringly powerful social drama that highlights, with brutal honesty and emotional intensity, the state of modern Britain. The Old Oak is a dilapidated pub in a Durham village, owned and run by TJ (Dave Turner), a former miner. He has a strong community spirit that extends to helping Syrian refugees who are housed in the village. This pits TJ against a few racist locals who have seen their own properties crash in value and whose families suffer from the collapse of the economy. TJ with the help of Syrian Yara (Ebla Mari) opens up the large and long shut up function room in his pub to try and bring the community together. Loach delivers his message with an intensity that cannot but be admired whatever your own political viewpoint may be and this film opens up questions for any reasonably minded person. But Loach delivers a balanced narrative here and attempts to show how a cauldron of false and biased social media and misconceptions affect the attitudes of people faced with deprivation and yet see strangers apparently being given an advantage. There are disturbing scenes here and a final uplifting conclusion that avoids a saccharine solution to Britain's problems. The film does suffer somewhat from the non professional actors who at times are clearly struggling but this is a minor criticism. A film well worth checking out.

Loach's final film is a frustrating but moving, scattershot but heartfelt last rallying call - The Old Oak review by TB

After a career full of visceral & trailblazing films (Kes, Cathy Come Home & I, Daniel Blake being particular highlights as well as ushering in profound social change,) Ken Loach ends his career with a film about isolation, poverty & a community coming together. But whilst it starts strongly & has some exceptional performances, unfortunately it also runs head first into many of the clichés which Loach films can fall into, much to it's detriment.

Set in County Durham, a once thriving, wealthy & industrious part of Britain (due to the local colliery mine,) it is now a dilapidated former shell of itself, a metaphor for the state of the houses, shops & general employment in much of the North. Into this tinderbox, a large group of Syrian refugees is housed, in properties which have been sold for a pittance, thereby catastrophically devaluing the local population's homes. Much anger is directed not only at the Syrians, but at the 2 local residents (TJ & Laura,) who are helping them settle. The film then follows the families & locals as they integrate & interact.

There are many positives to this film, mainly the cast. As per usual with Loach films, the vast majority of the cast are not professional actors, but local people/new performers. This approach, when done well (as Loach has done time & time again,) produces incredible results. You feel like you are watching real people, because you are, not just actors who have read the script & spent a bit of time with a dialect coach to lock down the accent.

Loach has also found an incredible performer in Ebla Mari as Yara, the English speaking & most confident member of the Syrian refugees. She is the beating heart of the film & her delicate but powerful interactions with both TJ as well as the racist & aggressive residents is incredible. There is also the completely authentic feel of the local community, as well as the camaraderie that these close Northern towns have in abundance.

But this film also has many faults which genuinely frustrated me. One of the biggest is the simplistic way that some of the locals are written & developed as the film goes on. To start with, those who are hostile to the new arrivals are actually given some nuance & not just written as illiterate & "bone-headed knuckle dragging racists." But this approach only lasts so long, Loach & the scriptwriter Paul Laverty then making the people's reactions both more extreme & less plausible, almost as if they are concerned that to humanise those who are deeply troubled by the arrivals is to completely validate their beliefs.

So you have this group start to be written as being more & more extreme, both in their statements & actions, which doesn't ring true. And some of the legitimate concerns which they have, both in terms of security as well as the pressure on local services which will affect EVERYBODY, not just them, are either twisted or not dealt with at all.

Alongside this, there is a deliberate staging of the North/Northerns as being a miserable & intolerant people (playing up to the old cliché "It's grim up T'North.") I am a frequent visitor there, have lived with & had repeated interactions with many people from all over the North; this reputation is totally & completely wrong/false. Northerns are the most kindest, genuine & decent people you could meet. They are not in any significant way like the negative characters you see. And the perpetuation of this stereotype is one I resent.

The film does have a very moving & powerful ending, which does tie together many of the strands. But as the credits rolled, I did feel that this was a missed opportunity by Loach to actually make a film which not only asked some of the tough questions, but gave honest answers, not just the ones he most wanted to project.

A powerful, but flawed final film from one of Britain's greatest directors.

Riveting. Superb in every aspect - The Old Oak review by AM

A village in the desolate ex-coal mining north-east of England where a few villagers live a depressed existence. They  are more than threatened when family of Syrian refugees is housed in some of the old terraced housing...their true xenophobia surfaces as they attempt to oust the gentle foreigners who, in their desire to work hard and blend in are the least racist. The scene where the villagers gather to 'debate' the 'problem' is a masterpiece of group acting and dialogue as it exposes the small mindedness of rural people who are threatened and frightened by what they don't understand - for some of them the scene degenerates to angry racism. The local landlord does his best to stay neutral and at the same time offers help to the refugees and to deprived local families incurring the wrath of the small minded angry and vocal racists. A masterpiece of acting, direction and photography.