The Old Oak

7

Watched the film by British director Ken Loach “Old Oak” / The Old Oak, 2023. The director, known for his commitment to acute social themes, and this time did not change himself, taking up a topic that now quite often makes itself felt in Britain – this is the topic of immigrants. In principle, there are quite a few of them, despite the fact that leaving the EU, they called the need to reduce immigration one of the main reasons, in fact, the opposite happened (however, they were warned about this back then), immigration from the EU did decrease somewhat, but increased from other countries. This film is about Syrian immigrants coming to a small village in Wales, long bent after the closure of the mines. The locals live quite poor, there is only one pub left - this very "Old Oak", in which local regulars gather every day. The arrival of immigrants stirred up the local population, many reacted to this extremely hostile. But there were those who helped them, one of them was the owner of the pub TJ (this is how they have a shortening of his initials - TJ). And then he became friends with a girl Yara from the newcomers, and they even together with a local resident Laura organized a charity meal, not only for the children of immigrants, but also for the children of the local poor. The locals often said about this – they say, the poor themselves, and they put all kinds of visitors around the neck. Everything would have been fine until the locals took revenge on him. The end, despite some tragic events, is quite good, in the realism of which one does not really believe, given the crowded event, the final procession, in such a outback, well, he wants to believe in such an outcome. The film, in principle, is not bad, if you do not go into the interpretation of political events, apparently, they interpret them.