Ken Loach’s Irish war film picks up top Cannes prize

By Mike Collett-White and Kerstin Gehmlich

CANNES, France (Reuters) – Director Ken Loach’s “The Wind
That Shakes The Barley,” a moving drama about the Irish
struggle for independence in 1920, won the “Palme d’Or” at the
Cannes film festival on Sunday.

The Golden Palm, the highest cinema award outside the
Oscars in the United States, went to one of Britain’s most
highly respected and socially active film makers, and was a
fitting choice for a festival were political pictures stole
much of the limelight.

The 69-year-old film maker told Reuters in an interview
earlier in the festival that the Irish fight for independence
against an empire imposing its will on a foreign people had
resonances with the U.S. occupation of Iraq today.

The Grand Prix, or runner up prize, was awarded to
“Flanders,” directed by France’s Bruno Dumont.

The movie is an examination of war and its effect on those
who fight and those left behind told through the story of the
young and taciturn farmhand Demester, who is called up to fight
a war in an unspecified country.

While Dumont does not define the cause of the conflict,
brutal images of desert landscapes, troops under fire from Arab
snipers and executions of soldiers caught by the enemy will be
seen by audiences as a clear reference to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The ensemble female cast of Spanish director Pedro
Almodovar’s “Volver,” including Penelope Cruz and Carmen Maura,
won the best actress prize.

The best actor category also went to a cast, in this case
that of “Indigenes,” screening as “Days of Glory” in English,
about the role North African troops played in defending France
during World War Two.

The cast includes Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri and Sami
Bouajila.

Almodovar won best screenplay for Volver, his bitter-sweet
tale of abuse, abandonment and reconciliation which was the
critics’ favorite to take the Palme d’Or before the awards were
announced.

Best director went to Mexico’s Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
for “Babel,” a sweeping portrayal of barriers — personal,
cultural and national — which was shot on three continents and
stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.

The Jury Prize went to Britain’s Andrea Arnold, who was in
Cannes with her first feature film “Red Road,” about a woman
whose job is to monitor the grim streets of Glasgow through
security cameras that seem to be on every corner.