The Old Oak (15) : Crime and Justice Film Festival 2025
Screening great films which provoke debate and provide an alternative take on crime, justice and punishment in the 21st century.
Date and time
Location
Grosvenor East Building, Manchester Metropolitan University
Cavendish Street Manchester M15 6BG United KingdomAbout this event
- Event lasts 2 hours 45 minutes
The Manchester International Crime and Justice Film Festival 2025
Welcome to the 2025 festival sponsored by the Department of Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University and curated by the university’s Policy Evaluation and Research Unit.
Since 2019, we’ve had a consistent mission - screening great films that provoke debate and provide an alternative take on crime, justice, and punishment in the 21st century.
This year’s programme brings you free films from three continents, in an eclectic mix of crime classics and lesser-known gems chosen by crime experts and film enthusiasts.
Our experts will be on hand to introduce their movie choices and to answer your questions at Q+A sessions after each screening. See below for the amazing lineup of guests.
The Old Oak (Ken Loach, 2023) – with Julie Parsons, Chris Parsons and Gavin Bailey
Thursday 5th June 17.30–20.15 FREE
At the Grosvenor East Building, Cavendish Street, Manchester, M15 6BG
In a former mining village in County Durham, a pub called the Old Oak is one of the few places where people can still meet and find some sense of community - although T.J. Ballantyne, the pub’s landlord, is beginning to find it a struggle to keep it open. When Syrian refugees are housed in the town, T.J. is one of the first to try and make them welcome, defying the resentful and racist sentiments expressed by some of his regulars.
The Old Oak is Ken Loach’s 26th full-length film and (he has said) “probably” his last. It takes an unsparing look at a deprived community in a dog-eat-dog world, highlighting seeds of hope and solidarity without denying the reality of division and hatred.
“As stark a portrait of a broken, divided UK as you’ll find” - BFI
The Old Oak has been selected by Chris Parsons from the resettlement charity Landworks and Dr Julie Parsons from the University of Plymouth; Julie is co-editor, with Kevin Wong from the festival team, of the new book The Role of Food in Resettlement and Rehabilitation: Good Food and Good Lives. They will introduce the film and will be joined in the post-screening Q&A by Dr Gavin Bailey, Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University.
With the Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA) and the Media Trust, we are showing a selection of short films before the main feature. Created by professional volunteer filmmakers and CJA member organisations, these films are crafted to inspire change, elevate voices too often unheard and advocate for a fairer, more effective justice system.
Screenings will take place at Grosvenor East Building, the university’s Arts and Creative Hub. Grosvenor East is on the corner of Oxford Road and Cavendish Street, just a five-minute walk from Oxford Rd train station. We also have a joint screening with our partners at Instituto Cervantes Manchester.
We look forward to welcoming old friends and new audiences alike from the UK and internationally.
See you at the movies!
Your festival team:
Kevin Wong, Gavin Bailey, Anton Roberts, Katie Hunter and Phil Edwards
Other Films in the Festival:
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Wednesday 7th May, 5:30pm
Scum (18)
Director: Alan Clarke, 1977, 78 minutes, English
A no-holds-barred dramatisation of conditions in British borstals (pre-1980s young offenders’ institutions), Scum was made for the BBC Play for Today strand but banned before broadcast.
Booking Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/scum-18-crime-and-justice-film-festival-2025-tickets-1268960768819?aff=oddtdtcreator
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Monday 12th May, 5.30pm
Million Dollar Baby (12)
Director: Clint Eastwood, Year: 2004, Duration: 127 minutes, Languages: English
HMP/YOI Thorncross Learners’ Choice
This sports drama puts the spotlight on aspiring boxer Maggie and her ill-tempered coach, Frankie, who bond over combat sports..
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Saturday 17th May, 1.00pm
A Thousand and One Martian Nights
Director: Tintin Wulia, Year: 2017, Duration: 39 minutes
A dense, multi-faceted short film, A Thousand and One Martian Nights takes an innovative approach to the buried history of the Indonesian coup of 1965.
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Wednesday 21st May, 5:30pm
Holloway
Directors: Sophie Compton, Daisy-May Hudson, 2024, 86 minutes, English
In this documentary, six women return to the abandoned prison to take part in a women's circle and recall memories from their time inside.
Booking Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/holloway-crime-and-justice-film-festival-2025-tickets-1280698617039?aff=oddtdtcreator
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Tuesday 3rd June, 5:30pm
Je verrai toujours vos visages (All your faces)
Director: Jeanne Henry, 2023, 118 minutes, French with English Subtitles
Restorative justice was introduced in the French criminal justice system in 2014. Je verrai toujours vos visages is a fictional account of two very different initiatives. The film follows three individuals who committed theft and burglary being prepared for a group encounter with three victims of the same crimes , and a young woman requesting a one-to-one meeting with her absuer.
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Saturday 7 June, 1.00pm - 2:00pm
Community Policing: all things to all people? A potted history from the North West Film Archive
“Community policing – no-one’s going to disagree with it because no-one really knows what it means.” This is the starting point for this event, which marks a collaboration between the Film Festival team and the North West Film Archive, with advice and support from Will McTaggart from the Archive and Ian MacDonald, a former Assistant Chief Constable, Merseyside Police
Booking Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/community-policing-all-things-to-all-people-tickets-1280713551709?aff=oddtdtcreator
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Saturday 7 June, 2:30pm
Whistle Down The Wind (PG)
Director: Alan Clarke, 1977, 78 minutes, English
Whistle Down The Wind tells the story of how a group of children in deepest Lancashire shelter a fugitive from justice in the belief that he is Jesus Christ.
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Wednesday 11th June, 5.30pm
The Clan (15)
Director: Pablo Trapero 2016, 104 minutes, Spanish with English Subtitles
Argentina, 1980s. Under the deceptively calm gaze of their patriarch Arquimedes, the Puccio family live together, work together, kidnap together and kill together.
Booking Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-clan-15-crime-and-justice-film-festival-2025-tickets-1280724524529?aff=oddtdtcreator
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Friday 27th June, 5:30pm
Le Havre (PG)
Director: Aki Kaurismaki, 2011, 90 minutes, French with English Subtitles
Playful yet tender, the film recounts the story of Marcel, a down-at-heel husband with an ad hoc shoeshine business and an ailing wife. Marcel risks all to rally his friends and neighbours to unite and help to protect a young African immigrant struggling to find his mother.
Booking Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/le-havre-pg-crime-and-justice-film-festival-2025-tickets-1280776359569?aff=oddtdtcreator
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Thanks
The Festival is supported by our partners:
- Novus, who provide education in prisons
- HMP/YOI Thorncross
- Instituto Cervantes Manchester
- Alliance Francaise de Manchester (Registered Charity n° 1068084)
- One Small Thing (Hope Street)
- Criminal Justice Alliance
- North West Film Archive
For the third year running, we’re partnering internationally with Indonesian creative artists and campaigners. This year, we’re working with filmmaker Tintin Wulia and historian Gloria Truly Estrelita. Tintin’s film A Thousand and One Martian Nights takes an oblique but powerfully moving approach to the Indonesian massacres of 1965 and their long aftermath.