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Holiday watch: "The Old Oak" by Ken Loach

Here's why you should run to a movie theater to see this little gem (in English of course!)


Pitch: The Old Oak is a decrepit pub, the last remaining one in an old County Durham mining village (Northeast England). The last meeting place for the few locals that are left: old miners who lost their jobs after a strike in 1984 and the post-industrialisation of their village. Property prices have crashed, cheap accommodation is being snapped up by letting agents and now war-torn Syrian refugees are being bussed in, much to the dismay of some of the locals.

Pub owner TJ Ballantyne struggles to hold onto his business and keep it as the one remaining public space where people can meet in the town. Meanwhile, tensions rise when Syrian refugee families are placed there, but Ballantyne strikes up a friendship with one of the refugees, Yara.


A deeply humanistic and discreetly beautiful movie, not to be missed for the uncannily accurate and true-to-life picture it paints of post-industrial England in the Brexit era. Be sure to watch it in VOST (you might find it challenging to understand the English accent in this one!).



Ken Loach is an acclaimed British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialism are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty, homelessness, and labour rights.


Two of his films,The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) and I, Daniel Blake (2016), received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making him one of only nine filmmakers to win the award twice.


The Old Oak returns to the location of his last two films I, Daniel Blake (2016) and Sorry We Missed You (2019): the North East of England. The location provides some great character traits and showcases his socially critical style of film making in areas of post industrialised England.


Where as I, Daniel Blake focused on austerity, Sorry We Missed You, on the gig economy, The Old Oak focuses on another social issue in England: refugee intake and dispersal across the country.







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