Zeitgeist Films and Kino Lorber announced on Tuesday that they have acquired the U.S. distribution rights to Ken Loach’s final film “The Old Oak” with a planned release in early 2024.
Zeitgeist and Kino Lorber previously released Loach’s 2020 film “Sorry We Missed You” and will first release “The Old Oak” at the Film Forum in New York before expanding it to arthouses nationwide.
“We’re delighted that Zeitgeist has taken ‘The Old Oak’ for distribution in the U.S. It’s great that they’ve chosen to partner with us again after working together on ‘Sorry We Missed You,’” said Loach and his producing partner Rebecca O’Brien in a statement. “We feel that Zeitgeist Films is ideally placed to help our film reach the widest possible audience in the territory and know they will release the film with gusto.”
“The Old Oak” follows TJ, the owner of the last standing pub in a once booming mining town in Northern England that has now been abandoned by the economy and the government. The town’s continued decline has created an air of simmering anger and resentment among its residents that only gets worse when a group of Syrian refugees move in. But a spark of hope is found when TJ forms an unlikely friendship with one of the refugees — a woman named Yara — who could bridge a seemingly impossible divide.
“The Old Oak” marks the end of a six-decade directorial career for the 87-year-old Loach, who has been known in Britain for his socialist activism and his work in feature films, television and documentaries that explore issues of poverty, labor rights and social inequality.
Loach has won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme D’Or twice with his 2006 film “The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” starring Cillian Murphy and Liam Cunningham as brothers who fight in the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War in the 1920s; and in 2016 with “I, Daniel Blake,” starring Dave Johns as an ill man struggling to get support from Britain’s bureaucratic welfare system.
“’The Old Oak’ is a culmination of Loach and [screenwriter Paul] Laverty’s continuing concern with the most pressing issues of our time. We were truly brought to tears by this extremely relevant and moving story. The feelings expressed in this film are a reminder that a bit of kindness and understanding make a huge difference,” read a statement from Zeitgeist Co-Presidents Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo.
Zeitgeist Co-Presidents Emily Russo and Nancy Gerstman negotiated the deal with Eva Diederix of Goodfellas. Pacific Northwest Pictures will release the film in Canada.
