The Wind That Shakes The Barley

Veteran British filmmaker Ken Loach’s film ‘The Wind that shakes the Barley’ won the coveted Palme d’Or award for best film at this years’ Cannes Film Festival.

Loach’s film is set in Ireland in 1920 and focuses on two brothers, Damien and Teddy. Teddy is a leader of a guerilla squad (the early IRA) fighting for his country’s independence from the motherland, England. Damien is completing a medical degree, and is intending to do his final training at a London Hospital.

Shortly before Damien departs for London, he witnesses first hand atrocities carried out by the English soldiers, the Black and Tans, against a local family, and decides to change his plans and join Teddy’s resistance group.

Damien and Teddy fight side by side until the Irish resistance forces a truce, the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Many in the Irish community believe that the truce is a sell-out. The war is resumed, and the brothers take different sides, Teddy siding with the English and Damien with the Irish. Tragedy ensues.

There’s a quote from Loach’s speech at the Cannes Film which indicates where he was coming from in making ‘The Wind That Shakes The Barley’

“We live in extraordinary times and that has made people political in a way that they weren’t four, five, six years ago. The wars we have seen, the occupations that we now see throughout the world- people finally can’t turn away from that. It’s very exciting to be able to deal with this in films, and not just be a complement to the popcorn’.

]I came out of Loach’s film feeling emotionally gutted. His film as well as being critical of the British role in the conflict delivers a strong anti-war message. The one predominant theme that the film keeps coming back to is how, during the conflict, normal human boundaries and decencies don’t exist. The audience sees friends and families pitted against each other. One day friends may be sharing dinner with each other, the next day they are killing each other. The convictions and beliefs that the characters carry over-ride their humanity. One can’t help but feel that Loach means the audience to consider what is happening with suicide bombers and the situation in Iraq.

Cillian Murphy and Padraic Delaney are excellent in the leading roles with Orla Fitzgerald a stand-out in one of the supporting roles as Damien’s girlfriend.

‘The Wind That Shakes The Barley’ was a sobering, harsh, movie experience.