The Wind That Shakes the Barley

My first two films of the festival dealt to a large extent with issues of mothers and their children. This film dealt with the motherland and those that would die to defend the right to ensure that it's governed solely by those to whom the land belongs. I suppose one could say that I picked this film on the backs of the likes of "Braveheart", "The Battle of Algiers" and even last year's "River Queen". Living in the likes of Canada, Scotland and New Zealand one comes early to the realization that the world is not run by the likes of you and that there are always powerful forces at play to make damn sure that it stays that way. But as Jimmy Cliff sings "the harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all".

Knowing director Ken Loach's socialist heart and my celtic brethren's tyrannized existence in Ireland at the hands of the English I came to this film knowing what was coming my way. And I wasn't disappointed. This isn't a great film but it's got a quiet power. It's no "Braveheart" and thus may not appear at your local multiplex anytime soon but as with "The Battle of Algiers" it has a very timely message. There will always be young men (and occasionally women) willing to fight to keep imperial powers off their lands. And it really doesn't matter how these powers spin the justification for their presence in foreign lands at the end of the day the only rule that matters is home rule.

Loach's film focuses on a small contingent of men and a few women, living outside of the major centre of Dublin, struggling with British rule of their country. Only a few years removed from the end of the Great War the Brits still have a well trained fighting fit contingent of soldiers. As we've seen elsewhere in more recent times the option of taking on such an overwhelming military force head-on is no option at all. As such we see the dawning of the Irish Republican Army and the nacsent days of some its more infamous fighting tactics.

As with many of these decades and century long conflicts my knowledge is sadly lacking and this film was certainly educational in that respect although not as engrossing as it could have been, although a scene midway through the film had me in tears. My two major quibbles with this film is that at 2 hours long it's 20-30 minutes longer than it needs to be and could somebody screen this film with subtitles. I've seen some Scottish films (Ken Loach's "Sweet Sixteen" immediately pops to mind) with subtitles and they were a hell of a lot easier to understand than this.

Still an interesting and essential film, especially given the relatively peaceful state Ireland has found over the last 5 years or so. We can only hope that in the near future an Iraqi filmmaker will be able to produce a testament to his country's "independence" under similar circumstances.