Jimmy's Hall

At his best Ken Loach makes films that are as emotionally engaging as any in world cinema and while he has on occasions disappointed, every Ken Loach film is worth seeking out. "Jimmy's Hall" sees him return, in some respects, to the territory he explored in "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" and it is one of his very best films. Again we are back in Ireland but 10 years after the end of the Civil War. Old wounds haven't healed, (they still haven't healed completely to this day), and like "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" the divisions here are much more political than social and almost as violent.

It deals with the very specific conflict between those who opposed the Treaty, those who supported it and the dominating Catholic Church when one, Jimmy Gralton, returns from 10 years exile in America and reopens a community hall that was the source of all his trouble in the first place, against the express wishes of 'Holy Mother Church' and those who backed it.

As scripted by Paul Laverty it is, of course, a deeply political film but Loach is the most humanist of political film-makers; consequently it is also a deeply moving (and, at times, very funny) picture. At its centre is a magnificent performance from Barry Ward as Gralton and he is backed beautifully by Jim Norton and Andrew Scott representing the clergy as well as a host of wonderfully naturalistic Irish actors, some professional, some not. Loach may now be in this seventies but this feels as fresh and as relevant as anything he did fifty years ago. I think it's the equal to both "Land and Freedom" and "The Wind that Shakes the Barley".