A emotionally provocative look at a war that tore families apart.

Rating: 10/10 (24 January 2007)

A film that I found personally moving, as well as balanced in its telling. Unlike the "anti-Brit" piece it has been billed as, "The Wind That Shakes The Barley" is, at times, a brutal representation of a little understood war. This film comes from a stand point that needs to be remembered. All too often the Irish struggle against British rule is painted as only the work of car bombing terrorists. This film shows it to be a cause that runs far deeper than that, a matter of identity. It reminds us that the British were an occupying force in Ireland, and that the initial resistance was no different that any other for independence, no matter what came after. It shows faults on both sides, atrocities committed by the black and tans but also ambushes set up by Republican forces. The centre piece of this film is surely not a dig at the British, but a look at the relationships that any such conflict effects, community members, friends, and especially that between brothers. War films have been made for countless years, and more often than not the British have been shown winning. Why then can't two brothers from Co. Cork been shown trying to achieve right for them. Can it not finally be accepted that there are no winners and losers in war, no right and wrong. There are just those who survive, and those who don't.