Irish civil war film wins Palme d'Or

The Irish civil war film in the 1920s, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, has won the Palme d'Or at the prestigious Cannes film festival.

The Palme d’Or, or the Golden Palm, is the top prize in Cannes and the biggest award in cinema outside the Oscars in the United States.

The Ken Loach film stars Cork actor Cillian Murphy and Padraic Delaney as brothers fighting on different side of the conflict, and won through from a field of 20 films.

The film beat 19 other contenders for the main prize, the Palme d’Or, at the world’s most prestigious film festival.

The president of the nine-member jury, Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai, said the decision was unanimous.

The decision to award Loach's film the prestigious prize was decided this morning in the first round of votes by the prize jury.

Actress Helena Bonham Carter, who was on the jury, told a press conference tonight: “We saw Ken Loach’s film very early on in the process and it was absolutely shattering. It hit us all profoundly.

“It was one of five films about war and it was a fantastic education about the Irish problem.

“There was a tremendous humanity. I can’t explain our mass reaction but we were all profoundly moved.”

This year was the eighth time 69-year-old Loach had been nominated for Cannes' most prestigious prize.

The veteran director has won other honours at Cannes, including a lifetime achievement award title in 2004 – but never the main prize.

Loach told the Press Association: “This is very good for British cinema. I hope it encourages people in our film industry to remember we are part of world cinema and to not just look across the Atlantic.

“It’s been interesting that some politicians say we must apologise for the Empire but I haven’t heard any apologies.

“We have to acknowledge the exploitation and the oppression of the British state, but this film is also about heroism and bravery.”

The Wind That Shakes the Barley stars Cillian Murphy as an Irish medical student who takes up arms against a reign of terror by the Black and Tans, British troops sent in to quell calls for independence.

Loach, who previously won the third-place prize at Cannes with 1990’s Hidden Agenda and 1993’s Raining Stones, thanked the audience in French, calling the win “extraordinaire”.

He added: “The 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 will tell the truth about the present.”