It's safe to say that Ken Loach's latest movie sees him delve into unusually explosive territory. He's not a director you'd expect to find queuing with Michael Bay at your local outlet of Pyrotechnics'R'Us, but, as you can see from the film's new quad poster, Route Irish is a departure for the Midlander: a balls-out political thriller that tackles the grisly aftermath of Britain's involvement in Iraq.
**Route Irish **take its title from the nickname of the Baghdad Airport Road, the first, perilous road travelled by visitors seeking the sanctuary of the Green Zone. It's here that security contractor Frankie (John Bishop) meets a sticky end. His best pal and colleague Fergus (Mark Womack) heads back to Liverpool for his funeral and discovers that there's much more to his death than meets the eye. When he starts pulling the threads of Fergus' recent past, Mark starts to unravel the corruption at work in the new Iraq.
It may sound Greengrassy, but as Iraq-based thrillers go, it's unlikely to be The Hurt Locker in civvies, or even a British Green Zone. With historical dramas like The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Land And Freedom and Carla's Song behind him, Loach's tough political convictions run through his filmography like a thin trail of dynamite. Expect Route Irish to cast a much dimmer light over Western actions in Iraq than either of those movies.
You can catch Route Irish from March 18