Ken Loach’s Irish war film wins top Cannes prize

By Mike Collett-White and Kerstin Gehmlich

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

The Golden Palm, the highest cinema award outside the
Oscars, went to one of Britain’s most respected left-wing film
makers, and was a fitting choice for a festival where movies
about and war and politics stole the limelight.

The 69-year-old Cannes veteran told Reuters in an interview
this month 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.

After receiving the award at a star-studded ceremony in
Cannes, Loach said:

“Our film is about, we hope, a little step, a very little
step in the British confronting their imperialist history. And
maybe, if we tell the truth about the past, maybe we tell the
truth about the present.”

Cillian Murphy and Padraic Delaney star as two brothers who
join the guerrilla war against British forces. But the men face
harrowing choices when they end up on opposite sides of the
conflict.

Chinese director Wong Kar Wai, president of the nine-member
jury, said the decision on the Palme d’Or was unanimous.

WAR FILM TAKES RUNNER-UP AWARD

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

The film is an examination of war and its effect on those
who fight and those who are left behind. It is 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.

“This prize really belongs to Pedro,” said Cruz, wearing a
long red dress. “You are the greatest, the bravest. You put so
much magic into our lives. Thanks for what you do for women all
over the world.”

The best actor category also went to a cast as opposed to
an individual, 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.

She embarks on a dangerous quest for revenge when she comes
across a dark figure from her past.