A Savaege Blog?

The Irish civil war film, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, has won the Palme d’Or at the prestigious Cannes film festival. This is the first time that an Irish film has won the award.

The film is an uncompromising look at British brutality and torture and a bloody saga of British against Irish and brother against brother during Ireland’s fight for independence and subsequent civil war in the early 1920s.

Loach told reporters after the ceremony: “We live in extraordinary times and that has made people political in a way they maybe weren’t in the previous four, five, six years. The wars that we have seen, the occupations that we see throughout the world — people finally cannot turn away from that. It’s very exciting to be able to deal with this in films, and not just be a complement to the popcorn.”

“‘It’s been interesting that some politicians say we must apologise for the Empire but I haven’t heard any apologies.

“‘We have to acknowledge the exploitation and the oppression of the British state, but this film is also about heroism and bravery’.

“The Wind That Shakes the Barley stars Cillian Murphy as an Irish medical student who takes up arms against a reign of terror by the Black and Tans, British troops sent in to quell calls for independence.

I wonder if I had applied would I have gotten a role on the crew? I know a few people from college that did work on it… and a lot of it was shot in West Cork and all! ….oh well.