Description

Director Ken Loach has created a worthwhile picture that focuses on the Irish War of Independence, and the Irish Civil War. Life on the Emerald Isle was not easy between 1919 and 1923, and this drama tells the story of two County Cork brothers: Damien (Cillian Murphy,) and Teddy (Pádraic Delaney, who join the Irish Republican Army to fight for Irish independence from Great Britain.

Their war is a bitter and total one, with no quarter asked for or given; and soldiers on both sides – the British and the rebel IRA – are shown in a frighteningly brutal light in the manner with which they treat and eliminate what prisoners are left alive for them to take. Each member of an all-Irish cast plays his/her part effectively and with absolute conviction, while the colour photography and overall production values are of a very high calibre indeed.

Widely praised and honoured internationally, this 2006 film did well around the world and set a record as the highest-grossing Irish-made independent film ever.