‘And so I said, ‘The mountain glen I’ll seek at morning early and join the bold United Men’ while soft winds shook the barley.’

In early 20th century Ireland, rural workers ally to form volunteer freedom fighter armies to take on the brutal British ‘Black and Tan’ squads. Brothers Damien and Teddy form a resistance unit in their dangerous and violent fight for liberation, and use increasingly daring tactics. When the 1922 Partition divides Ireland into two politically opposed states, the Black and Tans march north and a violent civil war erupts, fracturing families.

In The Wind, film-maker Ken Loach presents a close-knit community in County Cork. This localised story tells of ordinary men and women who fight for their ideals and resist occupation. Like the titular song, The Wind addresses the personal sacrifices of war, of careers lost and of relationships destroyed. However, while it is steeped in melancholy, Loach’s characteristic humour’doubly entertaining in the brilliant Irish accent’introduces wonderful moments of grace and levity.

The song’s rustic lyrics are also visually replicated by the camerawork of Barry Ackroyd. The accelerating bloody events are sharply juxtaposed with the Cork countryside in all its soft, lush beauty. Similar references are made throughout the film to the momentous song, which mourns severed relationships and ‘the shame of foreign chains around us.’

The film delivers an uncertain emotional journey. The ideological rupture between the brothers seems lengthy and overtly contrived, while characters bitterly despair their country’s post-occupation fragmentation. The conclusion, in typical Loach style, is shocking to the core. Yet when both young and old echo the same words at the end of the journey, you will no doubt be astounded to find that you have come a full circle.