For nearly 60 years, filmmaker Ken Loach has been telling stories of the struggles of the working class. The perennial darling of the Cannes Film Festival, Loach has received numerous accolades over the years for his work including winning the Palme d’Or twice, the Jury Prize three times, the FIPRESCI Prize three times and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury twice. Now, at age 87, Loach has announced his retirement. His latest film, THE OLD OAK, will be his last.

Set in a once-thriving mining town in Durham County in England’s northeast, THE OLD OAK tells the story of a community dealing with a one-two-three punch of willful government neglect, overseas investors snapping up their properties on the cheap and the arrival of Syrian refugees. TJ Ballantyne (Dave Turner, SORRY WE MISSED YOU; I, DANIEL BLAKE) runs The Old Oak – the town’s remaining pub and it, like the town, is on its last gasp of air. When a group of Syrian refugees arrives in the town for resettlement, many of the residents see this as the ultimate smackdown of the little guy and they go to the pub to voice their strong opinions about it over a pint of beer. After one of the town’s loud-mouthed yobs breaks the camera of refugee Yara (Ebla Mari), TJ offers to sell a couple of his old cameras to help pay for its repair. Not surprisingly, this doesn’t sit well with his regulars, who ask TJ to open up the back room in his bar so that they could hold an anti-immigrant meeting there. TJ refuses and, adding salt to their wounds, instead opens up the room to host free community meals a few times a week. While many in the town, Brits and Syrians alike, appreciate TJ’s commitment to bringing everyone together, his regulars do not and they sabotage his efforts.

When you go see a Ken Loach film, you know what you’re in for and, in this respect, THE OLD OAK doesn’t disappoint. It’s not his most riveting work but at least he’s consistent in his humanistic view of the world. That sentiment is reflected in TJ who, we learn, has lost his religion but not his desire to do the right thing and help his fellow man. The story is straightforward, perhaps a little too straightforward for its own good, as pivotal events that take place are telegraphed to the audience early on. Turner, who was a firefighter for 30 years before Loach plucked him out of obscurity to be in his films, plays TJ with a lot of heart, although the character’s tendency to find the good in everything and everyone does border on the simplistic. Certainly, at the film’s climax, I wouldn’t have been so quick to forgive one character as TJ seemingly is. On the other hand, TJ, being both a bartender and a businessman, is also a realist and he knows that his town is just too small to make someone an enemy for life even if they deserve to be one.

Like Turner, the cast is made up of either non-professionals or those who have limited experience in front of the camera. Mari, who is a Syrian Druze from Israel, is a drama teacher. Though not a refugee herself, all the other Syrians in the movie are, and their own experiences of being bullied, spat at and excluded are reflected in the story.

THE OLD OAK opens in Hong Kong on May 23rd. It’s currently available on a number of streaming platforms too. It won’t be remembered as Loach’s best film but, if this is indeed his final film, at least the man is going out with his head held high.

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