Acting is uneven in The Wind That Shakes The Barley

Ken Loach turns his directorial eye on revolutionary Ireland in The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Pathé, €24.99), a tale of two brothers: Damian (Cillian Murphy), a medical student caught up in the War of Independence and Teddy (Padraic Delaney), his Republican brother.

Loach’s approach produces some overly romantic clichés of Republicanism, but also deals fairly with the brutality on both sides, such as Black and Tan murders, IRA reprisals, and Damian’s shooting of an informer.