The Old Oak, is Ilkley Film Society's next screening

The Old Oak is the last pub standing in a former mining community in County Durham, and its landlord TJ Ballantyne is struggling to keep it open as the town's one remaining public space where people can meet. When a group of Syrian refugees are placed in the community tensions and rifts appear in his close-knit clientele. TJ befriends one of the refugees, Yara, a young woman with a love of photography, and finds himself in conflict with some of the locals on whose custom the pub's survival depends.

Director Ken Loach has been a fixture of British film-making since he made Cathy Come Home for BBC TV in 1966, and 50 years later achieved his greatest popular success with I, Daniel Blake, screened by the Film Society in 2017. Now 88 years old, it may well be that The Old Oak is his final film. It is the fourteenth of his films to be written by Paul Laverty, his chief collaborator for 27 years.

In accordance with the Film Society's policy on British films it will not be screened with hard-of-hearing subtitles.

Guests are welcome, as always, (tickets £5, cash only) but should phone Dave Howell on 01943 430097 or email secretary@ilkleyfilmsociety.org.uk to ensure admission. Further information about the film and the rest of the Film Society season can be found at www.ilkleyfilmsociety.org.uk