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"TORONTO - When Ken Loach got the news that his latest film, "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," had just won the Golden Palm at last May's Cannes Film Festival, he couldn't have been more surprised...

 ...A longtime favourite at the French festival, English-born Loach, 70, was pleased that his new film, which is set to open March 16, was welcomed with open arms at the 59th edition of Cannes. "It was very nice; particularly nice because it was an award for the whole film, for the actors and the writer and everybody involved."

But by the time he got back home, the conservative British press was tarnishing Loach's film, which covers Ireland's War of Independence and the subsequent Irish Civil War during the 1920s...

...No stranger to controversy, his 1990 Northern Ireland-thriller "Hidden Agenda" fanned flames with a plotline that delved into the Royal Ulster Constabulary's supposed "shoot to kill" mandate, Loach says he wasn't setting out to rile critics in his home country. "It's just telling the stories of why we are who we are, and why we are where we are.

"It's such a big story, and it's one Paul (Laverty, the film's screenwriter) and I had wanted to do for a long time. It's the biggest event in Anglo-Irish history and it's hugely revealing about the British and how they dealt with their empire. It shows the brutality that they were prepared to inflict on people to keep what they saw as their strategic interests intact...

...Opening in 1920, "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" draws viewers into the lives of Irishmen who formed guerrilla armies to strike back at the 'Black and Tan' squads that were being imported from Britain to quash Ireland's bid for independence.

Bound by an intense love for his country, in the film's early scenes, Damien O'Donovan (played by Cillian Murphy) gives up a promising medical career at a London hospital to take up arms with his brother, Teddy (Padraic Delaney), and fight for freedom as part of the Irish Republican Army.

"The relationship between the two brothers is the heart of the film," Loach says, setting his palm underneath his chin.

As the battle rages, division within the IRA ranks bubbles, and the brothers' relationship becomes increasingly strained until, in the wake of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which established an Irish Free State, they find themselves at opposite ends of the political spectrum...

"Winning (the Palm d'Or) certainly validated the film," he smiles. "So we'll see what happens."

Staring out into the morning light poking its head through a throng of downtown high-rises, he's sure of one thing. "If a right-winger in Britain wants to get angry," he says with a slight shrug, "the film has the stamp of approval from the biggest film festival in the world." ..."

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 "...The director, Ken Loach, is known for movies like Raining Stones - thick-brogued, quotidian English dramas of working-class life and oppression (for Loach, the two often seem to be one and the same). In The Wind That Shakes the Barley, he fills the screen with gnashing outrage at the British lording it over the Irish. No doubt: Loach gives good righteous nobility. (That may be why his movie took the Palme d'Or at Cannes.) He paints the film in dark, rain-on-the-emerald-moor colors, and he provides fascinating details of how the Irish guerrilla struggle developed, with the rebels filching weapons, lashing out against tiny pockets of soldiers, steeling themselves to commit a shotgun execution - of a British landlord, or of anyone in their own ranks who betrays the cause.

The ferocity of Loach's moral wrath carries the movie, makes it ignite on screen - at least, until he tries to dramatize the fatal split of Ireland through Damien and Teddy, the brothers in arms. In December 1921, when the Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed, giving Ireland dominion status within the British Commonwealth, it's Damien, the placid purist, who says that the revolutionary struggle must continue, while Teddy, so militant in the face of torture, turns around and pleads for a laying down of arms. If Loach had given full voice to each side of this division, he could have made a great film - maybe the great film - about the Irish struggle. But in The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Loach can barely summon half a heart for Teddy's position. A movie that presents itself, ultimately, as a tragic portrait of a divided nation fails to explore the deepest reason for that fissure: the Irish who longed to stop fighting because they no longer saw the honor."

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ahemfriend Thu, Mar 15, 2007

The director didn't have to make up British cruelty to "spice it up" as the reviewer suggests. If the reviewer wishes to hold someone responsible for the sadism in this movie, perhaps he should hold the British/Black and Tans to task for being that kindof vile historically to the Irish.

Auriana Thu, Mar 15, 2007

I've been looking forward to seeing this movie since I first heard about it. Padraig Pearse and Michael Collins are my personal heroes. For a fictional take on the events from 1916 onward, I highly suggest Morgan Llywelyn's Irish novels..1916, 1921, 1949, and 1972.

B. Rogers Thu, Mar 15, 2007

Imperialist once and always. Never give up.

A Thu, Mar 15, 2007

Writing to you from Dublin, Ireland. I saw this film when it was released here last summer and while it has its faults, it is a true representation of what happened during the war of independence and the struggle Irish people had with the ruling & ruthless English.People in the US should see this as its educational, informative and on this Paddys Day weekend, it'll show how the real Ireland was born.

nothing civil in civil war's bind

arms embraced, empty arms behind

brothers, mothers, sisters more

sons and daughters, lost to war

a whole generation laid to waste

both sides right, but lost the race

there is nothing civil about civil war

both sides lost what was loved before

the devil ruled and angels slept

god turned his face and jesus wept

15Jun09