Irish war film wins top Cannes prize

CANNES, France - British director Ken Loach won the "Palme d'Or" at the Cannes festival for his Irish civil war film The Wind That Shakes The Barley, and called the award a triumph for political cinema.

The Golden Palm, the highest cinema award outside the Oscars, went to one of Britain's most respected film makers and was a fitting choice for a festival where hard-hitting portrayals of the real world past and present stole the show.

The 69-year-old Cannes veteran, who has had eight films in competition, told Reuters at the festival that the Irish fight for independence against an empire imposing its will on a foreign people had resonances with the US occupation of Iraq today.

After receiving the award at a star-studded ceremony in Cannes, Loach told reporters:

"We live in extraordinary times and that has made people political in a way they maybe weren't in the previous four, five, six years. "The wars that we have seen, the occupations that we see throughout the world -- people finally cannot turn away from that. It's very exciting to be able to deal with this in films, and not just be a complement to the popcorn."

Cillian Murphy and Padraic Delaney star as brothers who join the guerrilla war against British forces, but who face harrowing choices after ending up on opposite sides of the conflict.

Chinese director Wong Kar Wai, president of the nine-member jury, said the decision on the Palme d'Or was unanimous.

The Grand Prix, or runner up prize, was awarded to Flanders, directed by France's Bruno Dumont.

The film is an examination of war and its effect on those who fight and those who are left behind. It is told through the story of the young and taciturn farmhand Demester, who is called up to fight a war in an unspecified country.

While Dumont does not define the cause of the conflict, brutal images of desert landscapes, troops under fire from Arab snipers and executions of soldiers caught by the enemy will be seen by audiences as a clear reference to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Palestinian juror Elia Suleiman told reporters it was not the subject matter, but the films' treatment of it, that was foremost in deciding the prizes.

"What is interesting ... is that a lot of them are engaged with issues of the world today," he said. "I don't think that's by accident. We live in a troubled global atmosphere."

The ensemble female cast of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's Volver, including Penelope Cruz and Carmen Maura, won the best actress prize.

"This prize really belongs to Pedro," said an emotional Cruz, wearing a long, strapless red dress. "You are the greatest, the bravest. You put so much magic into our lives. Thanks for what you do for women all over the world."

The best actor category also went to a cast as opposed to an individual, in this case that of Indigenes, screening as Days of Glory in English, about the role North African troops played in defending France during World War 2.

Almodovar won best screenplay for Volver, his bitter-sweet tale of abuse, abandonment and reconciliation which was the critics' favourite for the Palme d'Or ahead of the awards.

He called being favourite "a curse" in Cannes, but added: "I'm not complaining. I'm very happy with this."

Best director went to Mexico's Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Babel, a sweeping portrayal of barriers -- personal, cultural and national -- which was shot on three continents and stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.

The Jury Prize went to Britain's Andrea Arnold, who was in Cannes with her first feature film Red Road, about a woman whose job is to monitor the grim streets of Glasgow through security cameras that seem to be on every corner.

She embarks on a dangerous quest for revenge when she comes across a dark figure from her past.

- REUTERS