Ken Loach, now 78 years old, has announced that JIMMY’S HALL is his last big film. But one has to wonder if this is true. Since 1967, Loach has directed 35 films, almost one a year, and 12 together with the sceenwriter Paul Laverty. The idea that the film and political duo would stop now is hardly conceivable. However, if this is the case, JIMMY’S HALL is a tremendous departure.
Alongside THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY and LAND AND FREEDOM, JIMMY’S HALL is one of the few films by Loach and Laverty that isn’t set in the present. The film is a period piece set in 1932 Ireland, a decade after the Anglo-Irish War, and it unfolds against the backdrop of religious and political divisions and a brief thawing of Catholic conservatism. Around this time Jimmy Gralton returns to Ireland from New York. The convinced socialist had fled Ireland for the States ten years earlier, but now the political climate seems more favourable, so he returns to help his mother run the farm. Once back in County Leitram, he meets his old companions and adversaries, as well as a new generation who only know him by name. The local youths ask him to reopen the old Pearse-Connolly community hall so they will have a place outside the watchful eye of the church to gather and socialize. He hesitates but decides to go ahead and reopen it. The hall is host to dance lessons, art lessons, literary discussions, poetry readings and political debate. The conservative landowners and the Catholic Church thoroughly disapprove of the activities. Soon Jimmy is on the run again.
Jimmy Gralton and the “Pearse-Connolly Hall” did actually exist, although little is known about the details of Jimmy’s life. This gives Loach and Laverty the freedom to envision what kind of person Jimmy might have been and inject fictionalized elements into Jimmy’s onscreen life. This is done with careful historical research. At its core, JIMMY’S HALL is the story of a small town and a collective project that goes up against the power and authority of the state and church. Jimmy might be the film’s central character, but the hall and the possibility it creates for free exchange and collective efforts are at the centre of this film. In a film landscape that favours personal or individual suffering or success stories, the politically charged films by Loach and Laverty will be sorely missed.

Hendrike Bake