Автор: Stephen Schaefer

For Cillian Murphy, the luck of the Irish has a literal meaning when it comes to starring in the award-winning The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

The film (opening Friday) re-creates Ireland's struggle for independence after World War II under Britain's army of occupation. British soldiers tortured, imprisoned and even murdered those who spoke Gaelic rather than English. Wind is the latest drama to mix political reality and human stories from veteran director Ken Loach.

"It was a fluke of incidence, the fact I am from Cork and Ken decided to make a film about Cork," said Murphy, now an international name thanks to such hits as Batman Begins and Red Eye.

"If I wasn't from Cork, he wouldn't have put me in the film, because if he makes a film about Glasgow or London or wherever the hell it might be, it's with people from that area because they have that language, that's where they're from and it's in their blood. It's in the way they move and walk. That's why I got the gig."

A rarity among filmmakers, Loach shoots completely in sequence. His cast never sees complete scripts, only the day's scenes, the better to play off instinct.

Murphy had no idea what was going to happen to his doctor, Damien, who initially wants only peace and no part of a risky rebellion.

"When people have asked me what my criteria are for choosing jobs, I will always say that it starts with the script and then it's the director and so on," Murphy said. "In this case, you don't have a script. Yes, there is a very strong script that is completed and written by Paul Laverty, but it's just that Ken doesn't give it to his actors. So you do take a leap of faith."

It's hard to imagine any of Murphy's Hollywood counterparts risking their careers this way, but Wind, which won the best picture prize at Cannes in May, was a personal project for him.

"This struggle touched my family. I had a cousin who was killed. When I was a kid, I would drive through the town where my mom was from and she would point out this plaque that was put up in his memory.

"Also, my dad told me that his grandfather was shot at when he was playing music—because traditional (Irish) music was also banned along with everything else. So I come from the Southeast (sic), which also has a good tradition over the years of rebellions against the British. We come from farmlands. I know that there are a number of now-faded headstones in ditches where people were shot as they were cleaning ditches or digging up crops. It's really quite horrendous when you think about it. Can you imagine living in that state of fear the whole time?

"So it felt like I needed to be in the movie. It felt like I had a debt and a responsibility to the memory of these people and to my ancestors to do this. It's who I am, really."