British Ken Loach, born on June 17, 1936, in Nuneaton, England, signed his first feature film in 1967: Poor Cow, after experiencing acting and working as TV film director.
His second feature will be a success from the audience's point of view as well as from the critics�: Kes 1969.
Although in the '70s and '80s, he made several feature films, he admits: "I think I'd lost my way a bit - and lost touch with the kind of raw energy of the things we'd done with Kes." Loach confesses his films are no longer as incisive as they used to be and that he doesn't find the best projects anymore.
He gets back to the critics' attention in 1990, with Hidden Agenda, winning the Prize of the Jury in Cannes, the same year.
In the '90s, he works with several left wing writers, including Paul Laverty, he has chosen as a partner for his next projects Carla's Song 1996, My Name Is Joe 1998, Bread and Roses 2000, Sweet Sixteen 2002 and The Wind that Shakes the Barley 2006.
Except Carla's Song, all other 4 movies made upon Laverty scripts, Loach entered Cannes Film Festival Official Competition. With his latest, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, he finally got the Palme d'Or.
Having already seven participations in Cannes Official Competition and no Palme d'Or yet for Loach, some "voices" could have been heard stating that this Palme d'Or would rather be a lifetime achievement award and not one namely for The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Loach's supporters assert that Cannes Jury, led by famous film director Wong Kar-wai, and accounting among the jurors Tim Roth, Samuel L. Jackson, Elia Suleiman or Patrice Leconte could not be influenced, in their verdict, by just a well-known name.
Loach is a controversial director. His film can be liked or disliked.
But no one can reproach him his consistency, as long as, for almost 40 years he has promoted on screen his principles, his political creeds, and his stubborness while trying - through his films- to convince his audience that there is a dreadful, unequal fight of the social and political discriminated people.
Feature Films
1967 Poor Cow
1969 Kes
1971 Family Life
1979 Black Jack
1982 Looks and Smiles
1986 Fatherland
1989 Singing the Blues in Red
1990 Hidden Agenda
1991 Riff Raff
1993 Raining Stones
1994 Ladybird, Ladybird
1995 Land and Freedom
1996 Carla's Song
1998 My Name is Joe
2000 Bread and Roses
2001 The Navigators
2002 Sweet Sixteen
11'09'01 - September 11 (segment)
2003 Ae Fond Kiss
2005 Tickets (with Abbas Kiarostami, Ermanno Olmi)
2006 The Wind That Shakes The Barley
THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY
Directed by: Ken Loach
Script: Paul Laverty
Cinematography: Barry ACKROYD
Editing: Jonathan Morris
Music: George Fenton
With: Cillian Murphy, Padraic Delaney, Liam Cunningham, Orla Fitzgerald
Ireland 1920: workers from field and country unite to form volunteer guerrilla armies to face the ruthless "Black and Tan" squads that are being shipped from Britain to block Ireland's bid for independence.
Driven by a deep sense of duty and a love for his country, Damien abandons his burgeoning career as a doctor and joins his brother, Teddy, in a dangerous and violent fight for freedom.
As the freedom fighters' bold tactics bring the British to breaking point, both sides finally agree to a treaty to end the bloodshed. But, despite the apparent victory, civil war erupts and families, who fought side by side, find themselves pitted against one another as sworn enemies, putting their loyalties to the ultimate test.
"I wouldn't call this an anti-British film. I'd encourage people to see their loyalties horizontally across national boundaries, so that this isn't a film about the Brits bashing the Irish. People have much more in common with people in the same social position in other countries than they do with, say, those at the top of their own society. You can argue that we have a responsibility to attack the mistakes and brutalities of our leaders, past and present. Far from being unpatriotic, it is a duty we cannot ignore."
Ken Loach at the press conference for The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Cannes 2006
