Unquestionably partisan – you’d expect nothing less from director Ken Loach – the Palme d’or winning The Wind That Shakes the Barley looks to the 1920s Irish War of Independence and the impact it has on two brothers.
It’s a sombre telling as would-be doctor, Damien (Cillian Murphy), cancels plans to to travel to England as conflict between the British security forces and Irish Unionists escalates. Winessing constant violent abuse in rural settings, he joins the local IRA brigade, commanded by his brother Teddy (Pádraic Delaney). But each has different expectations of the best outcome.
It’s easy to know what you are against, but quite another to know what you are for.
Deftly handled (script by longtime Loach collaborator Paul Laverty), it’s an intimate, humane telling of huge events, of ideals that pitch country against country, community against community, brother against brother.
Rating: 74%
Director: Ken Loach (I Daniel Blake, Kes)
Writer: Paul Laverty ( I Daniel Blake, Sorry We Missed You)
Main cast: Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later, Inception), Pádraic Delaney (Blackthorn, The Man Who Knew Infinity), Liam Cunningham (Hunger, TV’s Game of Thrones)
An Opinion or Two 