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The last time Ken Loach tack- led the Irish “question”, it was with 1990’s provocative Hidden Agenda, a thinly-dis- guised drama about the British Government’s alleged ‘shoot to kill’ policy in
Northern Ireland.
Now, some 16 years on - and as Loach
is about to celebrate his 70th birthday - the veteran filmmaker has returned to a related subject with The Wind That Shakes The Barley, a searing tale set against Ireland’s painful transition to self- rule at the turn of the Twenties.
In the year that also marks the 40th Anniversary of his trailblazing TV drama, Cathy Come Home, Loach explained: “I first became interested in Irish history through Jim Allen when he wrote Days Of Hope, the story of a soldier who volunteers for the First World War, but who gets sent to Ireland instead of going to fight in France.
“Then Hidden Agenda was about contemporary events in the North, but we always felt that they could not be understood without knowing why Ireland was partitioned, and how the conflict originated.
“I think what happened in 1920-1922 is one of those stories that is of perma- nent interest. Like the Spanish Civil War, it was a pivotal moment. It reveals how a long struggle for independence was thwarted at its moment of success by a colonial power who, in divesting itself of its empire, still managed to keep its strategic interests intact.”
However Loach, who was accused in some quarters of being a “traitor” with the Cannes Jury prize-winning Hidden Agenda, claims that his latest film isn’t “anti-British. I’d encourage people to see their loyalties horizontally across nation- al boundaries, so that this isn’t a film about Brits bashing the Irish.”
The Wind That Shakes The Barley – the words come from 19th Century lyrics by Robert Dwyer Joyce that have been the basis of numerous songs including one by The Pogues – is Loach’s first peri- od film since 1995’s Land And Freedom, less- than-co-incidentally his take on the aforementioned Spanish Civil War.
Film entirely in County Cork and neighbouring Killarney with a cast including Cillian Murphy, Padraic Delaney, Liam Cunningham and Orla Fitzgerald, the film also re-unites various Loach regulars including producer Rebecca O’Brien, writer Paul Laverty, DP Barry Ackroyd BSC, editor Jonathan Morris and sound mixer Ray Beckett.
Said O’Brien, on her ninth film with the director: “One of the best things about filmmaking for me is the amount
you learn on each production – not just the history but the way the people you work with react to the story and involve themselves with it. People had a great commitment to telling this story.
“Within the crew there was a core team who we’ve worked with over a number of productions. That gives you confidence that even the worst problems will find solutions, and there is real secu- rity with that knowledge. That’s why our production methods, although uncon-
ventional (eg shooting in sequence) can seem relaxed and malleable.”
For Ackroyd, Wind marks his 11th feature with Loach since they first col- laborated on Riff-Raff in 1990 following their 1989 documentary, A View From The Woodpile.
“I’ve now worked with Ken so many times there is a shorthand we always use. It’s also great to do a film that’s set in a period before electric light. We had some lovely scenes using gaslight or
the veteran British filmmaker back to The Troubles.
Photos main and right: Scenes from The Wind That Shakes The Barley and top right, Director Ken Loach with DP Barry Ackroyd BSC
16 • Exposure • The Magazine • Fujifilm Motion Picture
WHEN IRISH EYES ARE
As Ken Loach turns 70, The Wind That Shakes The Barley brings