"The Wind that Shakes the Barley" opened this weekend at the Ritz Five in Philadelphia. This beautiful film has won many awards all over the world, including the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, and received universal acclaim from critics. Set in 1920, the film tells the story of two brothers torn apart by the war and politics surrounding the creation of the Free Republic of Ireland.The film has been banned in England, and has attracted controversy for its portrayal of the Black and Tans, notoriously ferocious British forces that brutalized the Irish poor for years. Interestingly, the film has a British director, the well-known Ken Loach. Here is an Irishman's take on the situation, as posted on IMDb:
"In Ireland we are in rare position internationally when it comes to our media. Most of what we read, listen to and watch is usually interpreted in two perspectives, through our own media and through that of our near neighbours across the Irish Sea. There are other instances of large and small neighbours with a common language (Germany and Austria; USA and Canada; Australia and New Zealand), but nowhere is the penetration of the larger nation's media into the neighbouring market as pronounced as it is in Ireland. Viewership of UK TV stations and readership of UK owned newspapers in Ireland is at a level that makes them as significant to our view of the world as our own media. This breeds a familiarity with our neighbours that can make us Irish assume the British know as much about us as we do about them. Nothing could be further from the truth however as has been graphically illustrated by the reception given in Britain to Ken Loach's Palme d'or winning movie The Wind that Shakes the Barley. There is no question that this film makes the British forces look bad, but of course the reality as all Irish people know is that they were. In the UK normally reasonable and intelligent reviewers and commentators cannot cope with this depiction of occupying British forces as violent repressors of a largely defenceless native population. It has been described as unbalanced and portraying the valiant British soldiers in an unfair and unflattering light. The truth is that the vast majority of British citizens couldn't tell you where Galway is and why should they? They're ignorance of their own colonial past so close to home and denial of it shouldn't surprise us; it is not something to be proud of. This is not to attack Britain, but to remind Irish readers of UK newspapers and viewers of UK television that Britain is indeed a foreign country. They view the world through an entirely different perspective than us, and in truth our views are inconsequential to them. That's why Loach's film, which tells essential truths, will not get a general release in the UK. Despite the fact that Anglo-Irish relations are probably better now than they have ever been the truth about Britain's history in Ireland is something that they just aren't ready for, and probably never will be."
Here's the film's trailer:
3 comments:
I saw this a few weeks ago and it really helped me understand how far Irish culture has come in the past 100 years. It made me proud to be Irish (but I think that was what it was trying to do). I wonder how someone who is from mostly English decent would feel about how their ancestors were portrayed?
That comment is from Brianne.
Dustin: Brianne, to answer your question, the British have reacted quite negatively to this film. It has been slammed by the critics and the public (most of whom haven't even seen it). Interestingly, the film was directed by an Englishman.
The film will be screened by the students in Dublin as part of the History and Culture course.
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