The Old Oak: A poignant Loach (review)

An English town plagued by impoverishment where the arrival of refugees divides its inhabitants while creating a surge of humanity. At 87 years old, Ken Loach is not giving up.

Like Arte and France.TV, Canal + is also banking on Cannes works in the middle of the 77th festival. This evening, the encrypted channel will offer The Old Oakthe drama of Ken Loach presented on the Croisette in 2023. First advises you. Especially since it is the final achievement of the British filmmaker, who has since announced his wish to to retire.

For his new film, The Old Oak, Ken Loach has chosen to go back – slightly – in time. Heading for 2016 in a village in the North-East of England, a mining town plagued by massive unemployment where the arrival of Syrian refugees will create tensions in an increasingly impoverished population. And the director of Wind rises makes the local pub (the Old Oak which gives it its title) and its boss, tender and worn, via his friendship with a Syrian woman keen on photography the backbone of his new film with humanity that tugs at your heart.

At 87 years old, Loach is not giving up. While inequalities everywhere are growing, he still believes in the possibility of a better world. He refuses to accept that the wretched of the Earth devour each other instead of revolting against those who caused this situation. It has anchored in the heart the certainty that the humanism of some will ultimately triumph over the filth instigated by others, those who seek abroad as the scapegoat for their misfortunes.

This utopia could seem fabricated and naive. His detractors – those who insist that the Englishman makes left-wing films for right-wing people – will not fail to harass him on this subject. But with Loach, due to his entire career as a man and filmmaker, this utopia carries you away with its deep sincerity and its desire to reweave a link – too often damaged or broken – between the struggles of the left of yesterday and those of today. Like a poignant antidote to all these sad passions which undermine our time.

Trailer :

Another world is possible, and even necessary”: in Cannes, Ken Loach's committed speech in full