“The Old Oak,” May 11, 2024 (2023), The Lexington Venue theater. Director Ken Loach’s latest and last film is one filled with struggle, resistance, international solidarity, and hope. A busload of Syrian refugees fleeing Asad’s barbarism and their country’s destruction arrive in a down-and-out, English mining town. They are met by locals beaten down by the closing of their mine that followed on the disastrous defeat in the strike of 1984, years of unemployment, bitter hopelessness, and the anger that goes with all that. Local tavern owner – and former miner, TJ Ballantyne (Loach ensemble regular Dave Turner) is struggling to keep his pub and himself alive. Some local churches, residents such as Laura (Claire Rodgerson), and others informed by their union past, greet the Syrian newcomers. Still others – including some of TJ’s mates – spew racist taunts, venomous disdain, and worse.
The publican, weighed down with his own pain, sees these refugees as people seeking safety and survival in a strange land. His friendship with Yara (Ebla Mari), a young Syrian woman, enables his own growth as they and others come together. Solidarity is crucial to hope.
This is not a happily-ever-after film, and that’s good. But in these days of global neo-fascism on the march, it’s important to see a film that suggests that everyday folks can move forward together in genuine solidarity. We are elevated with them.
As I mentioned earlier, Loach has announced that this is his last film. Over the years he’s looked at the real political, economic and social costs of capitalism by focusing on the experience of ‘everyday’ folks. Films like “Riff Raff,” “The Wind that Shakes the Barley,” “Land and Freedom,” “Bread and Roses,” and “I, Daniel Blake” give us characters who confront the pain of their environments. Some are very rough. I found “Riff Raff” and “I, Daniel Blake” almost too difficult to watch. But they also provide visions of real people struggling to remain human and fight back in profoundly dehumanizing environments. Thank you Ken Loach.