The hate crime hangs
in the air when Yara (Ebla Mari) and her family arrive on the bus to County Durham. The year is 2016 and they have fled the war in Syria. The new arrivals are met with suspicion and harassment from the local residents.
Ken Loach does not excuse racism but puts it in a context of class divisions that increased long before the refugees appeared. A bitterness has taken root after the small community has been dismantled since the mining industry disappeared and the neighboring houses were bought up for spit boots.
The prolific
veteran Loach has said that "The Old Oak" may be his last film, and he follows the form, style and theme that have become a hallmark of his recent social realist dramas. Stripped imagery that captures exploitation and injustice through the perspective of ordinary people.
Often with an altruistic hero, this time the venerable pub owner TJ (Dave Turner), who finds himself caught in the middle of the culture war as his pub The Old Oak becomes a symbolic last place of gathering in the shrinking community.
It's possible to admire
Loach's unwavering humanism, but at the same time criticize his sentimental storytelling, complete with a cute dog dying and given a long and sobbing backstory. "The Old Oak" is otherwise a petty drama that shows how the working class is pitted against migrants while venture capital companies in Cyprus make money from cheap refugee housing.
It lacks the heartfelt humor of easy-to-digest Loach films such as "The angels share", while it does not find the same socially critical nerve as in his heavier films, for example the austerity drama "I, Daniel Blake".
The ambition is
impressive, but the tone lands in a kind of no-man's land that makes the end result almost trivial.