SPOILER WARNING
That’s a wrap
A FRESH LOOK AT HOME ENTERTAINMENT
THE LEGENDARY KEN LOACH TELLS EMPIRE ABOUT SAYING GOODBYE TO DIRECTING, AND BOWING OUT WITH THE OLD OAK
WORDS OLLY RICHARDS
EDITED BY CHRIS HEWITT
FOR NEARLY 60 years, Ken Loach has been telling stories about the people most movies ignore. From films like Kes and Poor Cow at the start of his career, to Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake in the latter stages, he has been a fierce champion of the working class —and fiercer critic of the governments trying to demonise them —centring his films on ordinary people often punished by cruel circumstance. No British director has done more to show the great unfairness of society.
Now, at the age of 87, he has directed his last film. The Old Oak, a drama about the tension that occurs when a group of Syrian refugees are homed in a declining former mining town in County Durham, is a fitting final Loach. In its focus on a struggling ex-mining community, it has echoes of his best film, Kes, and in its focus on the refugee experience it is searingly contemporary. Above all, it is a story of shared humanity.
As he bids farewell to filmmaking, Loach reflects on how the world has changed since his career began, how it’s stayed the same, and what he’ll be doing next.
It’s been a few months now since you officially retired. How are you finding it?
Well, I haven’t noticed, really! We’ve been opening The Old Oak across Europe, so I’ve been to five countries and I’m off to another one next week. There’s not a lot of retirement going on.
In that case, how do you feel knowing your film career is complete?
A bit alarmed. If you’re doing a film, you’ve got a really good excuse for not doing anything else. The moment you stop, the excuse is gone. Life promises to be as hectic as ever, but with no ready-made excuse for getting out of things. So I’m a bit worried.