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Image: Zeitgeist Films/Kino Lorber With 15 films and two Palme d’Or wins, Ken Loach is the surprise answer to the trivia question about the record-holder for the director having the most individual efforts screened in the main competition at Cannes.The workhorse British filmmaker has made a career largely...

Image: Zeitgeist Films/Kino Lorber

With 15 films and two Palme d’Or wins, Ken Loach is the surprise answer to the trivia question about the record-holder for the director having the most individual efforts screened in the main competition at Cannes.

The workhorse British filmmaker has made a career largely...

An expectation of finality has followed Ken Loach’s The Old Oak since its premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. “When you’re doing it, you’re doing it, you just have to get a move on and get on with it,” he told The Guardian. “But I can’t see me getting round the course again. Your capacity fades a bit when you’re knocking on.” And while no artist should be begrudged a bit of rest––especially after an artist as prolific and rigorous as Loach––assigning this the preset narrative of “final film” misses, perhaps, its chiefest gift to the viewer: the obscenity of hope at the prospect of living in the modern world.

Set in County Durham, The Old Oak follows Tj (Dave Turner), the owner of the languishing pub that gives the film its name, and Yara (Ebla Mari), a photographer who comes to the...

We present our red carpet interviews from the UK Premiere of The Old Oak, directed by Ken Loach, written by Paul Laverty and starrring Dave Turner, Ebla Mari, Claire Rodgerson, Chris Mcglade, and Trevor Fox. Oh, Jeremy Corbyn turned up too, so we quizzed the former Labour leader on his film tastes. Kept it light, you know. We saw the film recently and Loved it. Read our glowing review right here.

The film hits UK cinemas on September 29th. Ethan Hart and Colin Hart were on the red carpet, here are their interviews.

The Old Oak Premiere Interviews

Plot:

The Old Oak is a special place. Not only is it the last pub standing, but it’s also the only remaining public space where people can meet in a once-thriving mining community that has now fallen on hard times after 30 years of decline. Tj Ballantyne (Dave Turner) the landlord hangs...

"When you eat together, you stick together." Studiocanal UK has revealed an official UK trailer for the latest Ken Loach feature film titled The Old Oak, which still doesn't have US date set yet. The film premiered in May at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in the main competition, but it didn't win any awards in the end. It's yet another social realist drama from Ken Loach, this time focusing on refugees and racist locals. The film is about the future of the last remaining pub, The Old Oak in a village of the Northeast England, where people are leaving the land as the mines are closed. Houses are cheap and available thus making it an ideal location for the Syrian refugees, who arrive in town to find upset locals unhappy by their arrival. Dave Turner stars as Tj, the owner of The Old Oak pub who befriends a young Syrian woman,...

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Matthew Dunster’s Children’s Children at the Almeida Theatre is a riveting piece of theatre and a must-see show this summer. The opening scene is set in a posh living room with plush purple sofas and a big sign in the background with the letters Wow. That set piece for me is no accident. It’s as if the scenery itself wants to state loud and clear that this play will have the “wow factor “. And it does.

The story is about long time drama school buddies Gordon (Trevor Fox ) a no-name actor and a super successful telly presenter, Michael( Darrell D’Silva). Gordon is up to his neck in debt and has come to ask for some help from his old friend. Meanwhile Effie (Emily Berrington) his superficial fashionista daughter is unfazed by her father’s problems and is more obsessed with her aspiring...