''The Old Oak'' is a 2023

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film directed by

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a retiredhttps://variety.com/2024/film/global/ken-loach-retirement-the-old-oak-jonathan-glazer-oscars-speech-1235956589/ English filmmaker. His socially critical directing style and socialist views ar ...

and written by

Paul Laverty Paul Laverty (born 1 April 1957) is an Indian-born Scottish and Irish screenwriter and lawyer best known for his collaborations with Ken Loach. Birth and early career Paul Laverty was born in Calcutta, West Bengal, to an Irish mother and Scot ...

. It is a co-production between the United Kingdom, France and Belgium. After its world premiere at the

2023 Cannes Film Festival The 76th annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 16 to 27 May 2023. Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund served as jury president. With the French film ''Anatomy of a Fall'' winning the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, Justine Triet became ...

, where it competed for the

Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...

, the film was released in the United Kingdom on 29 September 2023, by

StudioCanal StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., and Canal+ Production and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film & television production and distribution company which is a ...

. The film was nominated for

Outstanding British Film The BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film is a film award given annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and presented at the British Academy Film Awards. The award was first given at the 1st British Academy Film Awards, fir ...

at the 77th British Academy Film Awards.

Premise

Pub landlord TJ Ballantyne, living in a previously thriving mining community in

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

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

Cast

Production

The film was set and shot in the northeast of England. Loach, who turned 87 prior to its release, told ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' it would "probably" be his last film. Production companies on the film include UK's Sixteen Films,

StudioCanal UK StudioCanal Limited, trade name, doing business as StudioCanal UK (formerly known as Optimum Releasing), is a British film distribution division and the official British branch of the French film & television production and distribution company ...

and

BBC Film BBC Film (formerly BBC Films) is the feature film-making arm of the BBC. It was founded on 18 June 1990, and has produced or co-produced some of the most successful British films of recent years, including ''Truly, Madly, Deeply (film), Truly, ...

, France's

Why Not Productions Why Not Productions is a public French film production company founded by producers Pascal Caucheteux and Grégoire Sorlat in 1990. Its main focus is French auteur cinema, but it also co-produces films from other countries. Some of the filmmak ...

, and Belgium's

Les Films du Fleuve Les Films du Fleuve is a Belgian art-film production company owned by the Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and launched in 1994. It is most known for have produced three ''Palm d'Or'' winning movies: ''Rosetta'' (1999) and '' L ...

. The script was written by

Rebecca O'Brien Rebecca O'Brien (born 25 October 1957) is a BAFTA-winning film producer, known especially for her work with co-producer Ken Loach and scriptwriter Paul Laverty. She has twice been the recipient of the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival. ...

produced the film. The film was scored by

George Fenton George Richard Ian Howe Fenton (born 19 October 1949), known professionally as George Fenton, is an English composer. Best known for his work writing film scores and music for television, he has received five Academy Award nominations, several ...

Filming

Filming began in May 2022, and took place over six weeks. Locations used in

included Murton,

Horden Horden is a village and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in County Durham, England. It is situated on the North Sea coast, to the east of Peterlee, approximately 12 miles south of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, S ...

, Easington and

Durham Cathedral Durham Cathedral, formally the , is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Durham, England. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Durham and is the Mother Church#Cathedral, mother church of the diocese of Durham. It also contains the ...

. The pub in Murton that became The Old Oak during filming was a disused pub previously known as The Victoria.

Release

The film premiered in main competition at the

on 26 May 2023. It was also invited at the

28th Busan International Film Festival The 28th Busan International Film Festival () opened on October 4 at the Busan Cinema Center in Busan, South Korea. Song Kang-ho of ''Parasite (2019 film), Parasite'' fame welcomed filmmakers as host of the festival, while Park Eun-bin acted as ...

in 'Icon' section and was screened on 5 October 2023.

released the film in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 29 September 2023, and

Le Pacte Le Pacte is a French motion picture company headquartered in Paris. It specializes in film distribution, co-productions and international sales. It was founded by Jean Labadie in November 2007, shortly after he was forced out of his previous co ...

released the film in France on 25 October 2023.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 81% based on 80 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critics consensus read: "Imbued with the fiercely humanistic spirit that has defined Ken Loach's filmography, ''The Old Oak'' serves as a fitting -- albeit somewhat sentimental -- finale to a remarkable career." On ''

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

'', the film has a score of 69 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favourable" reviews. In ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', Peter Bradshaw named it as one of his films of the year, and the performance of Ebla Mari as one of the best in a supporting role on film in 2023.

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Old Oak, The 2023 films British Film Institute films StudioCanal films BBC Film films British drama films English-language French films English-language Belgian films French drama films Belgian drama films Films about social realism Films directed by Ken Loach Films scored by George Fenton Welfare in England Films about refugees Films about poverty in the United Kingdom Films set in County Durham Films set in drinking establishments 2023 drama films 2020s English-language films 2020s Belgian films 2020s British films 2020s French films Why Not Productions films Les Films du Fleuve films Le Pacte films Films about landlords Films with screenplays by Paul Laverty