The Wind that Shakes the Barley shoots straight into your system like a fever in the blood. This tale of two Irish brothers who battle the British together in 1920, then fight each other in a civil war, doesn't pause for exposition or local color or to let its characters catch their breath.
The dialogue comes at you in staccato bursts, the way the bullets do. Even the brothers' relationship has a brass-tacks reality that cuts deeper than any therapeutic psychodrama or archetypal Cain-and-Abel story.
The Wind that Shakes the Barley (IFC First Take) Starring Cillian Murphy, Padraic Delaney. Directed by Ken Loach. Unrated. Time 127 minutes.