Ken Loach still has more to say against The Man in society with his cinema, that was clear coming away from the Cannes press conference for his latest movie The Old Oak.
We asked Loach if the reports are true; whether The Old Oak is truly his finale. Answered the director, “One day at a time. If you get up in the morning, and you’re not in the obituary column; one day at a time.”
The 87-year old Loach told THR back in April, “realistically, it would be hard to do a feature film again” given that “your facilities do decline. Your short-term memory goes and my eyesight is pretty rubbish now, so it’s quite tricky.”
However, Loach emphasized today how important it is for cinema, especially with the younger filmmakers, to stay vibrant as the artform puts people of power in check.
Old Oak follows pub owner TJ Ballantyne (Dave Turner) whose venue is located in a deprived north-eastern former mining town. His patrons are mad at life –declining home prices and immigrants– and tensions arrives when a busload of terrified Syrians pull in. TJ makes a bridge to the Syrians, using the pub as a place for a food-bank style community supper. He also forms a connection with Yara (Ebla Mari), a young Syrian woman who lives with her brother and elderly mother; the family eager to know the fate of her father, who has been jailed by the Assad regime.
Loach said that the inspiration for The Old Oak came from working in the North East over his last two movies, and witnessing a strong industry community getting abandoned. “We saw the refugees from the Syrian War coming in, being placed in these areas where they would not be seen,” the director explained citing that there were more Syrian refugees in that part of the UK than anywhere else in the country. “The government doesn’t wan you to know that they are there,” he said.
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