The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
★★★★ — The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
The Wind That Shakes the Barley arrived in 2006 carrying the kind of weight that comes from subject matter still capable of dividing opinion on both sides of the Irish Sea. Set in the early 1920s, the film follows Damien O'Donovan, a young doctor on the verge of taking up a post in London, whose plans are violently derailed when British forces arrive at a friend's farm and a local man is killed. What follows is the story of Damien and his brother Teddy joining the Irish Republican Army, fighting for independence, and then facing the far more painful fracture that comes when the political settlement of 1921 splits their movement from within. It is, in short, a film about how a shared cause can survive occupation but not compromise.
Ken Loach is a director whose career has been built on socially and politically engaged cinema, and this film represents one of his most ambitious undertakings in that tradition. Made with backing from Sixteen Films, Matador Pictures, and Regent Capital across a co-production spanning Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Spain, the film was shot largely on location in County Cork. It went on to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2006, a distinction that, predictably enough, stirred considerable debate in the British press about whether the film was too sympathetic to the Republican cause. Paul Laverty, Loach's long-standing collaborator, wrote the screenplay, and the film runs to 127 minutes. Those who enjoy war dramas with a strong political conscience might also find something to engage with in 1917, another war film reviewed here.
The cast is led by Cillian Murphy as Damien, and it is the kind of performance that tends to reframe how you think about an actor's range. Murphy, who had already shown considerable screen presence in work such as 28 Days Later and would later demonstrate similar intensity in Anthropoid, brings a quiet, controlled quality to Damien that makes his gradual transformation all the more unsettling to watch. Pádraic Delaney plays his brother Teddy with equal conviction, and the dynamic between the two men is the film's emotional spine. Liam Cunningham, Orla Fitzgerald, and Mary O'Riordan round out a cast that feels grounded and authentic rather than polished but unremarkable. There is no star vanity on display here, which suits the material well.
A-Z World Movie Tour Ireland The Wind That Shakes the Barley is rich, bitter, and leaving you with a weight in your gut you didn’t see coming (especially as an Englishman with Irish Ancestry). This isn’t just a film about the Irish War of Independence; it’s a raw, intimate portrait of how violence and ideology fracture families, friendships, and souls. And Cillian Murphy doesn’t just act, he haunts. His Damien, a doctor turned freedom fighter, is all simmering rage and moral exhaustion, a man who starts the film stitching wounds and ends it stitching together his final defiant words. Ken Loach’s direction is unflinching. There’s no romanticized rebellion here, just muddy boots, whispered threats, and the slow erosion of idealism. The film’s power lies in its refusal to simplify. The British were brutal, yes, but the real horror is watching countrymen turn on each other as the revolution curdles into civil war. Scenes of IRA courts (where neighbours denounce neighbours) are as tense as any shootout. And the final act, where brothers-in-arms become executioners and victims, left me hollow. The historical context is woven in with precision. The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, the split between pro- and anti-Treaty factions, the birth of a fractured nation. But the film ends right as the Civil War ignites, a choice that feels both brave and frustrating. It’s like telling the story of Robin Hood and stopping just as he’s about to rob the tax collector. I get it: the tragedy is in the cycle, the inevitability of betrayal. But a little resolution would’ve gone a long way. Still, this is a masterpiece of emotional brutality. The cinematograph (gritty, desaturated, almost documentary-like) makes the violence feel uncomfortably close. And the score is sparse, mournful. Overall a really good film
For me, what lingers longest after watching this is that sense of the cycle being impossible to break, the feeling that every act of resistance contains the seed of the next betrayal. Films rooted in Irish history and culture have a particular way of sitting with you, and this one is no exception, though the experience is rather less gentle than something like Song of the Sea, which came from the same island with very different intentions. Ken Loach is not in the business of making things easy for his audience, and The Wind That Shakes the Barley is perhaps the clearest proof of that. You leave it feeling like you've had a long argument with history, and history won.
Rating: ★★★★ | Year: 2006 | Watched: 2025-07-02
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
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Related on Movies With Macca
More with Cillian Murphy: Anthropoid (2016) · In Time (2011) · 28 Days Later (2002)
More from Ireland: I Swear (2025) · Song of the Sea (2014)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
More war: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · The General (1926) · Men Without Wings (1946) · Fires Were Started (1943)
