Storyline
In 1920s Ireland young doctor Damien O'Donovan prepares to depart for a new job in a London hospital. As he says his goodbyes at a friend's farm, British Black and Tans arrive, and a young man is killed. Damien joins his brother Teddy in the Irish Republican Army, but political events are soon set in motion that tear the brothers apart.
Directors
Cast
Roger Allam, Liam Cunningham, Keith Dunphy, Noel O'Donovan, Cillian Murphy, Mark Wakeling, Sean McGinley, Pádraic Delaney, Orla Fitzgerald, Gerard Kearney, William Ruane, Laurence Barry, Sabrina Barry, Kieran Aherne, Scott Peden, Mary O'Riordan, Mary Murphy, Damien Kearney, Frank Bourke, Myles Horgan, Martin Lucey, Aidan O'Hare, Shane Casey, John Crean, Máirtín de Cógáin, Kieran Hegarty, Shane Nott, Kevin O'Brien, Gary McCarthy, Tim O'Mahon, Graham Browne, Owen Buckley, Aidan Fitzpatrick, Vince Hannington, Denis Kelleher, Colin McClery, Finbar O'Mahon, John Quinlan, Peggy Lynch, Peter O'Mahoney, Barry Bourke, Frank O'Sullivan, Diarmuid Ó'Dálaigh, Corina Gough, Danny Riordan, Peg Crowley, Fiona Lawton, Clare Dineen, Tomas OhEalaithe, Nora Lynch, Diarmuid Ní Mheachair, Denis Conway, Barry L. Looney, Connie O'Connail, Aine O'Connor, Francis O'Connor, Peadr O'Riada, Neil Brand, Tom Charnock, Alan Ready, Antony Byrne, Anthony Mark Streeter, Bill Armstrong, Christopher Bown, Mark Bryce, Alex Dee, Jonny Holmes, Allan Huntley, Bill Hurst, Daniel Kington, Jamie Lomas, Owen McQuade, Richard Oldham, Colin Parry, Bernie Sweeney, Derek Taylor, Neil Alan Taylor, Gregor Wood, Karl Dawson, Niall McCarthy, Siobhan McSweeney, Seamus Moynihan
Trailer
Reviews
90
A sombrely beautiful dream of the violent Irish past. Refusing the standard flourishes of Irish wildness or lyricism, Loach has made a film for our moment, a time of bewildering internecine warfare.
90
The history presented in The Wind That Shakes the Barley hardly feels like a closed book or a museum display. It is as alive and as troubling as anything on the evening news, though far more thoughtful and beautiful.
88
Beautifully shot, both in darkened homes and on the misty green Irish landscape by Loach's frequent cinematographer Barry Aykroyd, "Wind" has a you-are-there intensity and intimacy about it that make it nearly overwhelming. But for all its violence and subsequent sadness, it's a movie of extraordinary importance.
80
Village Voice
Like Jean-Pierre Melville's recently rediscovered "Army of Shadows," The Wind That Shakes the Barley possesses the soul of an anti-war movie and the style of a thriller.
75
Entertainment Weekly
If Loach had given full voice to each side of this division, he could have made a great film -- maybe THE great film -- about the Irish struggle.
