Loach's Irish Story Strikes a Chord Amidst Current Events

A new film about occupation and espionage in 1920s Ireland clearly resonates with current events today, as some audience members commented after watching Ken Loach's Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Wind that Shakes the Barley. The film's star, acclaimed Iraish (sic) actor Cillian Murphy, in a conversation with indieWIRE Friday, carefully concurred with such sentiments. "I think it's very clear that history repeats itself," he explained. "The film is highly political and if people draw a parallel with this film and (what's happening now) then they're welcome to do that." Continuing, Murphy added, "But what Ken does so wonderfully in his films is that while they're engaging on a political level, he also makes films well on a human level, so you engage in the story and find something in common—[as] with the two brothers in [The Wind That Shakes the Barley.]"

The Wind That Shakes the Barley was among the early press and industry screenings that drew a large crowd of Toronto fest-goers. Starring Murphy, the film returns to the political/historical—themes frequently visited by Loach in such films as Land and Freedom, which tackled the Spanish Civil War. In his latest, Loach delves into the Irish uprising against the British following World War I. Emboldened Irish Republicans fought the infamous Black and Tans and demobilized British forces who recently returned from what was then known as The Great War, to suppress the insurgents.

Cillian Murphy and Padraic (sic) Delaney play brothers, committed to the Republican movement, who join the rebellion. The two, however, fall on either side of a divide after a tentative peace brokered with the Brits creates a semi-autonomous Irish Free State in the south of the island, with one brother joining the new emerging establishment and the other refusing to relent and continuing with attacks.

"It was a time in Irish history that hasn't been dealt with cinematically," Murphy told indieWIRE Friday at the Intercontinental Hotel in Toronto. "I read more (about the history of the period) and found it much more complex then I had learned." The chance to portray the title character, Damien, appealed to Murphy as well as the opportunity to collaborate with the filmmaker. He added emphatically, "To work with Ken Loach was the first attraction."