Cold Open · Essay · dec 19, 2023

The Old Oak (2023): A Conversation With Ken Loach

Hope is political. If you have hope then you have confidence you can change things. After sixty years of filmmaking, Ken Loach arrives at what may be his most urgent film yet — a story of solidarity between a Syrian refugee community and the last pub in a dying English mining town. Speaking with Elliot, Loach discusses The Old Oak as both a political act and a love letter to the people that mainstream cinema consistently ignores. He explains why he never runs out of stories when there are still everyday people whose lives deserve to be on screen — and why solidarity is not a soft word but a radical one.

By Elliot Bloom

Film Journalist · Celebrating Cinema

“Hope is political. If you have hope then you have confidence you can change things”

After 60 years of filmmaking, British filmmaker & icon Ken Loach offers what may well be his most urgent message yet, calling for solidarity and the power that hope can instil in his latest film The Old Oak (2023).

Speaking with our host Elliot, Ken reveals how he never runs out of stories to tell when it comes to championing the everyday people. He says, these are the very stories and people that can pave the way for change.

At 87 years old, we hear the films of the 1960s Ken still returns to and how he still carries the spirit of filmmaking during these revolutionary times with him today.

If there was ever a time to be reminded of hope and solidarity it is now.

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