A new film set in Cork during the War of Independence has been selected as an entry for the Palme d'Or award at the 59th Cannes Film Festival, which takes place next month. Michael Dwyer, Film Correspondent, reports.
Shot on location in Cork and Kerry last summer, The Wind that Shakes the Barley features an all-Irish cast led by Cork actor Cillian Murphy. Murphy received a Golden Globe nomination for his role in Breakfast on Pluto this year.
It also features Dublin actor Liam Cunningham in his first leading role, and Padraic Delaney, who is from Adamstown, Co Wexford.
The film will have its world premiere in Cannes, it was announced at a festival press conference in Paris yesterday.
It is directed by veteran English filmmaker Ken Loach who has received awards at Cannes for several of his earlier films, including Riff-Raff, Land and Freedom, Raining Stones and Hidden Agenda.
The Wind that Shakes the Barley will deal with "the human drama, the heroism, and what people were willing to sacrifice, which seems extraordinary to us now," Loach told The Irish Times yesterday.
He described the War of Independence as "an absolutely critical period", which is why he chose to deal with it in a film.
"When the struggle for independence came to a head, all sorts of possibilities were open," he said. "However, the British, being long-experienced imperialists, did their best to close them down. There are parallels with what's happening in parts of the world today."
In 1990, Loach's Northern Ireland drama Hidden Agenda was the subject of a particularly heated press conference at Cannes where a delegation of British film critics requested the festival director to withdraw the film from the event. Their request was turned down.
"History is contemporary," said Loach. "Your understanding of history confirms what you think of the present. It's not neutral. I would be very surprised if people with a different view of the present, don't take issue with my view of the past. I just hope that people deal with the content of the film."
The Cannes festival will open on May 17th with the world premiere of The Da Vinci Code, Ron Howard's film of Dan Brown's best-selling novel, which has been criticised by the Vatican.
The film stars Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou and Ian McKellen.
The festival closes on May 28th with Transylvania, directed by the Algiers-born Tony Gatlif.
In addition to the Loach film, the entries in competition for the coveted Palme d'Or include Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation, Sofia Copolla's Marie Antoinette, Pedro Almodovar's Volver and Nanni Moretti's The Caiman, a topical comedy- drama that attacks the outgoing Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.