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The Wind That Shakes the Barley

War has cost them their innocence... Freedom will cost them their blood.

2006 · 2h 7m · Not Rated Drama, War
Directed by Ken Loach

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Overview

In 1920s Ireland young doctor Damien O'Donovan prepares to depart for a new job in a London hospital. As he says his goodbyes at a friend's farm, British Black and Tans arrive, and a young man is killed. Damien joins his brother Teddy in the Irish Republican Army, but political events are soon set in motion that tear the brothers apart.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
90%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Gripping, powerful, heart-breaking.

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
Fresh

The Wind that Shakes the Barley is a multi-layered story, and the more you see those different aspects, the more you'll enjoy the film.

Marta Barber, Miami Herald
Fresh

Raises hard questions about Ireland's uncanny ability to kneecap itself.

Kyle Smith, New York Post
Fresh

[Loach] has made an often handsome, always sobering movie that does what the best movies do: leave us a whole lot less sure about what we ought to think.

Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News
Fresh

[Loach is] the master of the docu-drama or the realist social film, and Wind is one of his masterpieces.

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

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