A film about the Irish War of Independence and Civil War, 'The Wind that Shakes the Barley', has won the top Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Ken Loach-directed film, which stars Irish actors Cillian Murphy, Liam Cunningham, Orla Fitzgerald and Padraic Delaney, is due to go on general release in Ireland on 23 June.
The Irish-UK-Italian-German-Spanish co-production was shot in Bandon Town, Mallow, Buttevant, Coolea and Killarney.
It is the first Irish-made film to win the award and also the first time Loach has won the award.
Accepting the award, Loach said: "This is a grand honour. Our film is a little step in the British confronting their imperialist history. Maybe if we tell the truth about the past we can tell the truth about the present."
'The Wind that Shakes the Barley' was the eighth Loach film to be selected in competition at Cannes; jury president Wong Kar Wai said the jury's vote was unanimous.
Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Loach said: "We live in extraordinary times and that has made people political in a way they maybe weren't in the previous four, five, six years. The wars that we have seen, the occupations that we see throughout the world - people finally cannot turn away from that. It's very exciting to be able to deal with this in films, and not just be a complement to the popcorn."
British director Andrea Arnold won the Jury Prize at the festival for her film 'Red Road' and French director Bruno Dumont won the Grand Prize for his film 'Flanders'.
Alejandro González Iñárritu won the Best Director award for his film 'Babel' and Pedro Almodóvar won the Best Screenplay award for his film 'Volver'.
The ensemble casts of 'Volver' and 'Days of Glory' ('Indigenes') won the Best Actress and Actor awards respectively.
