"The Wind That Shakes the Barley"
2006
Directed by Ken Loach

Director Ken Loach and scriptwriter Paul Laverty have been working together for more than a decade, and it shows in this simultaneously politicized and humanistic account of the anti-British uprising in 1920 Ireland. The brilliant cast is led by Cillian Murphy, who takes up arms with his freedom-fighting brother (Padraic Delaney) after witnessing British atrocities firsthand. This brutality, however, swings both ways. "The history presented in The Wind That Shakes the Barley hardly feels like a closed book or a museum display. It is as alive and as troubling as anything on the evening news, though far more thoughtful and beautiful" (A.O. Scott, New York Times). Winner of the Golden Palm at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. With Orla Fitzgerald and Liam Cunningham. Cinematography by Barry Ackroyd.  127 minutes.