The Wind That Shakes the Barley(2006)
dir. Ken Loach
Winning independence splits the brothers.
Where to watch: Acorn TV, AMC+, Sundance Now; free on Kanopy and Plex (with ads); rent Apple TV (~$3.99)Letterboxd ↗
County Cork, 1920. Damien, a young doctor about to leave for London, joins his brother Teddy in the IRA after watching British soldiers brutalise his neighbours. The film follows the war for independence, and then the Anglo-Irish Treaty that splits the brothers and the movement, when the people who fought together find they wanted different freedoms. It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2006.
Why it’s here
The film is about what happens after the revolution wins half of what it asked for. What's punk is that Loach sides with the ones who wanted more than a flag, and shows the cost of choosing. What's pedagogical is the treaty argument itself, which plays out in a room and shows how people who fought for the same thing end up on opposite sides. Pairs with Say Nothing.
Where This Film Lives
Read Alongside
Books that share a topic, theme, or setting with this film.
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
Patrick Radden Keefe
One disappearance, one war, one long silence.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
War Against All Puerto Ricans
Nelson Denis
The American colony that never made it into American history class.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
A Grain of Wheat
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Independence week. Everyone's keeping a secret.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Aké: The Years of Childhood
Wole Soyinka
A colonial childhood, one question at a time.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Ambiguous Adventure
Cheikh Hamidou Kane
Sent to learn the enemy's weapons. He loses himself.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Beyond a Boundary
CLR James
Cricket, colonialism, and what it means to play the master's game.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Black Elk Speaks
John G. Neihardt
A Lakota medicine man's vision, finally written down.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Bound to Violence
Yambo Ouologuem
Seven centuries of slavery, empire, and betrayal.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST