Ken Loach's Irish war film wins top Cannes prize

CANNES, France, May 28 (Reuters) British director Ken Loach today won the ''Palme d'Or'' at the Cannes film festival with ''The Wind That Shakes The Barley'', a drama about the Irish struggle for independence in 1920.

The Golden Palm, the highest cinema award outside the Oscars, went to one of Britain's most respected left-wing film makers, and was a fitting choice for a festival where movies about and war and politics stole the limelight.

The 69-year-old Cannes veteran told Reuters in an interview this month that the Irish fight for independence against an empire imposing its will on a foreign people had resonances with the U S occupation of Iraq today.

After receiving the award at a star-studded ceremony in Cannes, Loach said, ''Our film is about, we hope, a little step, a very little step in the British confronting their imperialist history.

And maybe, if we tell the truth about the past, maybe we tell the truth about the present.'' Cillian Murphy and Padraic Delaney star as two brothers who join the guerrilla war against British forces. But the men face harrowing choices when they end 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.

WAR FILM TAKES RUNNER-UP AWARD 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.

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 Cruz, wearing a long 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 Two.

The cast includes Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri and Sami Bouajila.

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

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 VJ RN0115