War film shakes up a storm at Irish premiere

IT may not have been as sunny as Cannes, but everyone was beaming at the Irish premiere of Ken Loach’s award-winning The Wind That Shakes The Barley last night in Cork, not least its homegrown star, actor Cillian Murphy.

“It’s lovely. Everyone’s so friendly and relaxed. It’s home, like,” said the young Corkman, who had come to the film with members of his family.

“I got in as many as I could squeeze,” said Murphy. “It’s a brilliant experience. The reaction is fantastic.”

Never had the new Omniplex cinema in Cork’s Mahon Point shopping complex seen the like. Somehow the smell of popcorn in the air was out of place with the swish talent striding the red carpet. The film’s director, Ken Loach, for instance.

“This is the big one,” said Loach, who has to go through it all again tonight for the London premiere, in aid of Amnesty International, “if people give us the thumbs up here, that’ll be the seal of approval,” he said.

For Loach, there was no other place to open the film.

“It was absolutely important that we opened in Cork,” he said, “as a mark of respect and affection for the people”.

The British film maker paid tribute to the talent he encountered in towns like Bandon, Macroom, Killarney and Buttevant, where parts of the film were shot.

“We were overwhelmed by the amount of talent,” he said, before offering a prediction for the England-Sweden game yesterday evening — “with Rooney playing, it should be 2-0…I’ll have to try and make it to a television set at some stage later”.

But the World Cup was the last thing on everyone’s minds, as star after star arrived. There wasn’t a black tie in sight, with the dress code being ‘smart casual’, but that didn’t stop actress Orla Fitzgerald arriving in style.

“I think people have made an effort,” she said, “after all, we are bringing the Palme d’Or home to Cork,” added Leeside native Fitzgerald, who wore a black dress by Irish designer Helen Cody for the evening, “I wore one of her dresses in Cannes as well,” she said.

Another star of the film, Wexford man Pádraic Delaney, described the night as “a real homecoming”. Currently working on a TV series with actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers, he said he was set to party the night away. “There’s so many people to meet,” he said, “so many people from the film are here.”

And it was like half the citizens of Cork had turned out as well, as they lined the cordon leading up to the cinema door with its red carpet, decked out on either side with white balloons, asking for autographs.

But, as Loach himself said, this was more a night for the people of Cork and Kerry, that had allowed filming in their homes and on their fields, that had acted in some small way to make this movie possible. Many of those people attended last night.

“I want to say a huge thank you to everyone that helped with the film,” said Loach. “It is genuinely a collaboration and the award is not for any one person, it’s for everyone who was a part of it.”

No doubt the same crowds that lined up for autographs last night will be queuing up this Friday, to see the movie when it opens nationwide. It’s not like we can often enjoy the opening of an Irish film of this stature.