Movies

SYNOPSIS

1932. Jimmy Gralton is back home in the Irish countryside after ten years of forced exile in the USA. His widowed mother Alice is happy, Jimmy's friends are happy, all the young people who enjoy dancing and singing are happy. Which is not the case of Father Sheridan, the local priest, nor of the village squire, nor of Dennis O'Keefe, the chief of the fascists. The reason is simple: Jimmy is a socialist activist. So when the "intruder" reopens the village hall, thus enabling the villagers to gather to sing, dance, paint, study or box, they take a dim view of the whole thing. People who think and unite are difficult to manipulate, aren't they? From that moment on they will use every means possible to get rid of Jimmy and his "dangerous" hall.

Ken Loach

Ken Loach (b. 1936, Nuneaton) studied law at university, spent a brief spell in the theatre, and was recruited in 1963 by the BBC as a trainee television director. He made a huge impact with his TV play Cathy Come Home (1966), and his first two feature films, Poor Cow (1967) and Kes (winner of the Crystal Globe at the KV IFF in 1969). Loach spent the next two decades working in television and making poorly distributed feature films before Riff-Raff (1990) occasioned a gear shift, with a string of exceptionally powerful cinema releases. Loach’s films have garnered numerous nominations and prizes at all the major international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice and Berlin, and at Britain’s BAFTA Awards.

Filmography

2014       Jimmy's Hall

2012       The Angel's Share

2010       Route Irish

2009       Looking For Eric

2007       It's a Free World

2006       The Wind That Shakes the Barley

2005       McLibel

Tickets

2004       Fond Kiss..., Ae

2002       11'09''01 - September 11

2002       Sweet Sixteen

2001       The Navigators

2000       Bread and Roses

1998       My Name Is Joe

McLibel

1997       The Flickering Flame

1996       Carla's Song

1995       Land and Freedom

A Contemporary Case for Common Ownership

1994       Ladybird

1993       Raining Stones

1990       Hidden Agenda

Riff-Raff

1986       Fatherland

1984       Which Side Are You On?

1981       Looks and Smiles

1980       The Gamekeeper

1979       Black Jack

1971       The Save the Children Fund Film

1969       Kes

1967       Poor Cow

Festivals

2014       Cannes, Rio, Pusan

The latest activist drama from the elder statesman of British political cinema is a heartfelt portrait of ideological warfare in 1930s Ireland.
Scott Foundas, Variety