Here’s the first look at Ken Loach’s Iraq-war drama “Route Irish” courtesy of the official Cannes website.
The film follows the story of Liverpool native Fergus (Mark Womack) as he recruits childhood friend Frankie (John Bishop) to his contract security team in Baghdad, their last chance to capitalize on the increasingly privatized war. When tragedy strikes on the Route Irish though — the road between the Green Zone and Baghdad airport — Fergus is left dissatisfied by the official explanation and initiates an investigation of his own back home, a journey that will ultimately change him forever.
The late-competition entry debuts at the Croisette today with early reviews relatively warm for what is being described as a “hard-edged thriller” with an “intriguing moral complexity.” Another review adds that the film “doesn’t have much more to say about the Iraq War than other recent films about the conflict” but instead “seeks to offset indignation with the war’s instigators via sympathy for the traumatized soldiers” a la Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker.”
Najwa Nimri, Andrea Lowe, Talib Rasool, Geoff Bell and Jack Fortune also star in the French-English co-production that features a reunion between Loach and cinematographer Chris Menges, whom he hasn’t worked for over 20 years. Usual Loach composer George Fenton is also on board.
