The new film, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, was shot around Bandon in west Cork last year and will be released this summer. Set at the time of the War of Independence, it follows the fortunes of two brothers, played by Cillian Murphy and Padraig Delaney, and their friend and ally, played by Liam Cunningham. The three men abandon their former lives to join a flying column and help execute a violent guerrilla campaign of resistance to British rule. While the story is fictional, the backdrop, according to the film's producer, Rebecca O'Brien, is authentic. "The film is based on real events but it is the war in microcosm, not historically word-perfect. It's not a story like Michael Collins. It's not seeking that sort of biographical accuracy, but rather will express the themes of the period. This is the core of the later Troubles, which is why it's so fascinating to make."

According to O'Brien, veteran film-maker Loach has wanted to do the "Irish story" since the mid-'70s. His longtime screenwriter, Jim Allen, was working on a script (then called The Stolen Republic) when he died in 1999. The Wind That Shakes The Barley . . . the title comes from a traditional folk song . . . was written by Paul Laverty, who also wrote Loach's last outing, the acclaimed Ae Fond Kiss.

The director is no stranger to controversy, and his leftwing views frequently colour his films. He made his name with the ground-breaking 1966 TV drama Cathy Come Home, before moving onto the big screen with Kes, which remains his best-known film.

Since then he has hit the headlines for a film commissioned by the Save The Children Fund which the charity subsequently disliked so much that it attempted to have the negative destroyed.

A Question of Leadership, a documentary on the miners' strike commissioned by Channel 4 in the 1980s, was also shelved for political reasons. Hidden Agenda, a thriller about a political cover-up in the North, gave him his biggest commercial hit for 20 years in spite of . . . or perhaps because of . . . the controversy surrounding it.

Loach most recently captured the headlines when he joined the national council of George Galloway's Respect party. Last month, while his party colleague was getting the cream in the Big Brother house, Loach called on television executives to limit the amount of hours of 'reality' programming on British television.