The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006, Irish/UK)

There are few things prettier than Cillian Murphy, but one of those things just might be the Irish countryside. In Ken Loach’s Palm D’Or-winning film, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, both are on heavy display, as Murphy plays one of two brothers whose involvement in the IRA struggle of the 1920’s illustrates the tensions within the Irish resistance movement.

At first, the sanitized violence of Barley bothered me. Despite a lot of death, there’s virtually no blood – but then, having just re-watched Pan’s Labyrinth, perhaps I simply had another type of film in mind. The real meat of Barley is not on the battlefield, but in the ideological shifts that take place within the central group of characters. During the course of the film, the foundation of the movement is questioned in such a way as to show how revolution is a constantly shifting thing. This makes the end all the more heartbreaking.

I’m just starting to get into Loach’s work (I wrote a review of Ae Fond Kiss in Filmsnack’s inaugural month), and though I’m not terribly familiar with the bulk of his films yet, I think Barley is a good point of entry. It’s fairly straightforward in form – an historical war film – but surprisingly deep in content. I will, however, issue a warning – I had to watch most of the film with the subtitles turned on, because the Irish brogue is thick, and the sound overlaps quite a bit.