The Old Oak

  • Cinematographic territories
The 2023 archive

Ken Loach

TJ Ballantyne is the landlord of the "Old Oak", a pub in a small, sleepy market town in the north of England. He befriends Yara, a young Syrian refugee, and together they try to breathe new life into the local community.

The Old Oak by Ken Loach © DR

Presentation

Territoires cinématographiques is a space for dialogue between live performance and cinema, devised in conjunction with Avignon's Utopia cinemas. It's a daily programme of film screenings after which the public can meet and talk with directors, choreographers, filmmakers, researchers and critics invited to the Festival d'Avignon. It's a space designed to explore the intimate relationships that these speakers maintain between disciplines and the world. It's a space where we can take a closer look, from the small to the large, at the themes that are brought to life on stage, on screen and under the plane trees of the Café des idées.

The Old Oak

By Ken Loach // France - United Kingdom // 2023 // 1h53

The future for 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.

Presentation of the film by Hugues Le Tanneur from Transfuge magazine
Closing film of the Territoires Cinématographiques - Preview screening
Film in official competition at the Cannes Festival

Practical infos