Ken Loach film 'The Old Oak': When an 'abandoned' British community meets Syrian refugees

Filmmaker Ken Loach collaborated with writer Paul Laverty once again for the film The Old Oak (now in Canadian theatres). A movie about a dying mining community in Northeast England where a group of Syrian refugees are brought to live.

As we see at the beginning of the film, these refugees face racism and hostility when they first arrive in the British community, a town still very much impacted by the miners' strike in 1984. Images of the strike are up on the walls in the back room of the local pub, run by TJ Ballantyne (Dave Turner).

While many patrons of the pub are particularly vile towards the refugees who have arrived, TJ is much kinder and compassionate. While TJ is not willing to confront anyone about their actions, he does offer to help a young woman, Yara (Ebla Mari), whose camera was taken and smashed by a man in the town. The camera was a gift from her father, who is back in Syria, and it contains photos from Yara and her family's journey to England, including the refugee camp they lived in.

Much of the focus of The Old Oak is that these two communities, both experiencing their own circumstances of pain and fear, can find hope by coming together.

'Consequences in the mining villages of communities that were abandoned'

Loach, having worked on multiple films in Northwest England with Laverty, stressed that the area has a specific history, based on industries like coal, mining and steel.

"It's left a workforce that was very skilled, very strong, strong trade unions, great traditions, ... abandoned really," Loach told Yahoo Canada. "We knew there was a big story waiting to be told, which is the consequences in the mining villages of communities that were abandoned."

"The shops closed, the social infrastructure disappeared, things like doctors, a lot of them disappeared, the schools were sparse, churches closed, community centres closed. Some families left, others moved in, because the houses were cheap, or were sent there by other local authorities. ... People feel angry and embittered. And alongside that anger and bitterness there's the mining tradition of solidarity, internationalism, welcoming people from abroad."

'Which elements of the mining community will win?'

Loach explained that Laverty heard a story of refugees from Syria who went to these communities, with more refugees sent there than any other area in Britain, per head of the population.

"The right-wing government don't want the right-wing press complaining that they're in middle-class areas," Loach said. "Out of sight."

"But when they first arrived, there was quite a lot of hostility. That arrival of a community that has nothing but what they stand up in, and a suitcase, with the trauma of war and often family members killed. Lost everything. Homes, everything. Arrive in a strange country, not knowing the language, most of them, and how do these two communities get alongside. Which elements of the mining community will win? The memory of solidarity, or the current bitterness and anger. Put them together and that produces the story."

In terms of establishing the Syrian refugee characters in the story, Loach stressed authenticity and "truth" was at the core of all the decisions, from the more intimate moments to the scenes with larger numbers of people involved, and looked to the Syrian actors for guidance.

"I said to them right at the beginning, whatever I ask you to do, it must be what you were doing in real life," Loach said. "And if I ask you to do something, however small, that isn't what you would do, then tell me and we will change it, because it's your truth."

"Much more important that it is your truth in the film than that some particular incident happens exactly as we planned it. That's not important. The truth is important."

With The Old Oak set to be Loach's final film, it's a gratifying ending to an impressive career.

The Old Oak is currently in theatres in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver, expanding to additional cities in the coming weeks.