Stafford Film Theatre – The Old Oak

Ken Loach / UK 2023 / 110 min / Cert 12A

Ken Loach continues his creative Indian summer streak with this follow-up to I, Daniel Blake and Sorry We Missed You. Two disenfranchised communities interact: a decaying NE mining village; Syrian refugees fleeing the Assad regime. Mutual distrust and antipathy are moderated through the failing Old Oak pub‘s jaded proprietor ‘TJ’ (Dave Turner) and positive, empathetic exile Yara (Ebla Mari), in despair over her missing, probably murdered father. We follow TJ as he tries to do the right thing, amongst the crushed hopes and resentments from years of austerity and post-industrial decline. As with Daniel Blake, director Loach will have you fully engaged and rooting for TJ, and for Yara: good people in a seemingly uncaring world.