‘It’s a message of hope. It’s a message of humanity’

Ken Loach’s final film, The Old Oak, has all of the definitive qualities the filmmaker has become known for. He has never skirted over thorny issues. His films ask questions and question assumptions, the lens unwaveringly trained on inequality and injustice. Homelessness, poverty and labour rights also feature.

The Old Oak is in some ways the culmination of his latest body of work made in partnership with long-time collaborator, and screenwriter, Paul Laverty. I, Daniel Blake examined the crippling effects of austerity in Britain; Sorry We Missed You is an indictment of the precarious gig economy.

“We had made two films in the North East,” the 87-year-old explains, “stories of people trapped in this fractured society. Inevitably both ended badly. Yet we had met so many strong, generous people there who respond to these dark times with courage and determination. We felt we had to make a third film that reflected that but did not minimise the difficulties people face and what has befallen this area in the past decades.”

Set in a former mining town in England’s North East – a town forgotten and impoverished in the decades following the enforced closure of the pits – the story pivots around The Old Oak pub as it becomes the epicentre of a clash between past and present. It is the last public space standing in the village, the community hub, kept afloat by a handful of regulars. When Syrian refugees arrive and face hostility, the pub becomes contested territory.

The struggling landlord and former miner, TJ Ballantyne, unwittingly finds himself at the centre of the turmoil. Can the budding friendship between TJ and Yara, a young Syrian refugee, bring the two communities together?

Before they began filming, Loach and Laverty went to visit former mining towns. “I wandered around, just getting lost and talking to people,” says 66-yearold Laverty. “And what was immediately obvious was there was a sense that time was present in these villages.”

Among the people he spoke to was a lady in her 90s who as a nurse had attended to men injured in the 1951 Durham mining explosion. “And when I spoke to people like that, there was a real sense of vitality about them, of connection,” he says. “And a real sense of community.”

The story is told through the evolving friendship between Yara and TJ, played by Ebla Mari and Dave Turner. As in other films, Loach brought real people to the screen, some with little acting experience, others with none.

In casting, he says his principle is always the same: “Listen, observe and allow people to be true to themselves. Casting is critical. It was clear that Syrians in the film should be those who have settled in the area. Paul’s script allowed them the freedom to contribute so that the story was a true reflection of their experiences.”

Mari grew up in Golan Heights, in the village of Majdal Shams, an area to Syria’s south-west and Israel’s north-east that has been under Israeli occupation since 1967. With a background in theatre, the 26-year-old makes her film debut in The Old Oak. Her on-screen family are not actors but Syrian refugees living in England.

“It’s always important to talk about subjects like this, especially underprivileged communities that escaped war,” Mari says. “And to make films about it so people can understand it more and hopefully have less judgment towards the communities ... so people can ask questions and maybe change perspectives.

“I like to think that cinema and art can change things.”

She was excited when Loach approached her. “I really believe in this kind of political and social art,” she says. “But also the subject is so close to my heart and so emotional for me, and so I felt an extra motivation to do it.”

Laverty adds: “You can have all the ideas in the world, all the issues, but you’ve got to find the story, the characters. To find two people like this, who’ve given such flesh and blood, has been an enormous privilege.”

The plight of the mining communities is one Turner, who plays TJ, knows well. He was working in a pub in Durham County, an old mining town, when Loach first approached him for the film. Before appearing in I, Daniel Blake, he had worked as a firefighter for 30 years.

Both Mari and Turner fully embodied their characters. Partly in coming to them from places of understanding and affinity, partly due to Loach’s directing technique: scripts are handed out the day before filming, plots revealed to actors in real time.

“It’s a small movie,” says Loach. “It’s not going to change the world. I just hope that people come to watch it with an open mind, and if it changes a few minds or attitudes, then that’s a start.”