At the Public Market you can often find Brussels sprouts still attached to their plump stalks. The only reason I mention this is because the films of British rabblerouser Ken Loach --- like 1994's domestic abuse drama Ladybird, Ladybird or 2000's workers' rights study Bread and Roses --- are like getting whacked in the mouth with one of them: nutritive, unambiguous, and no one's idea of fun. In the latest film of his four-decade career, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Loach paints a somber, fierce picture of the Irish independence movement through the tale of two intensely principled brothers, and the British director nabbed the top prize at Cannes last year for his troubles.

Barley --- the title is lifted from a 19th century Irish folk song --- opens in County Cork, 1920, just as Damien O'Donovan (the always excellent and very pretty Cillian Murphy, Batman Begins) prepares to continue his medical education in London. A couple of exceptionally brutal run-ins between the townspeople and the occupying British forces cause the previously diplomatic Damien to forgo his studies and join his activist brother Teddy in the fledgling Irish Republican Army. The Delaneys become the de facto leaders of their local company, battling tragic violence with more of the same, and this irony is not lost on the conflicted Damien: "I studied anatomy for five years, then. And I'm going to shoot this man in the head."

When the 1921 Anglo-Irish treaty establishing an Irish free state does little to accomplish peace, Barley takes on heartbreaking weight, pitting one-time allies against each other in a civil war over what exactly they were fighting for. As scripted by longtime Loach collaborator Paul Laverty and based on a number of true events, Barley leaves no doubt as to the placement of its sympathies (the English are depicted as evil, for lack of a better word), the notion of a bullying empire likely serving as yet another thinly veiled dig at the modern-day imperialism of certain countries which we need not name yet again.

Regardless of any agenda, Barley is stirring cinema, with cinematographer Barry Ackroyd (United 93) showcasing the earthy greens and browns of rural Ireland to idyllic effect, as well as stellar acting from its mostly Irish cast, especially Liam Cunningham as a train-conductor-turned-revolutionary. Loach certainly has a way with his actors, allowing them the freedom to improvise, talk over one another, and most refreshingly, flub their lines without turning off the camera, understanding that it can be difficult for awkward tongues to keep pace with passionate hearts and clever minds.

Every two years Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt select some art that they believe might be worthy of our time, and their third offering, TheAnimation Show 2007, features 12 short animated pieces from around the world that should atone for the puzzling longevity of Judge's King of the Hill. Hertzfeldt's Everything Will Be OK is the program's centerpiece, which shows him fusing his recognizable stick figures with experimental photography and setting it to hilariously bizarre voiceover that evokes King Missile lyrics.

The collection kicks off with Run Wrake's 2-D/CGI Rabbit, a children's book come to gruesome life starring two greedy tots who cross paths with an idol whose generosity has its limits. Joanna Quinn's award-winning Dreams and Desires uses a fluid sketch technique to illustrate the realities and fantasies of a truly inept wedding videographer, while Shane Acker's futuristic 9 is being adapted into a feature under the watchful eye of Tim Burton. And Bill Plympton follows up his riotous Academy Award-nominated Guard Dog with the equally funny Guide Dog, which finds our overzealous hero slobbering all over three new but sadly doomed clients.

Animation fans will also want to check out the Little's week-long engagement of this year's Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts, including the winner, Torill Kove's The Danish Poet, featuring Madeline-like artwork and graceful narration by Liv Ullmann recounting how Kove's dad, the titular wordsmith, met his future wife while nursing writer's block in Norway. Also included is No Time For Nuts, which stars Ice Age's Scrat, an acorn, and a time machine, as well as Pixar's Lifted --- it will also play with the studio's upcoming Ratatouille --- about an alien teenager trying to get his spaceship license.

The Wind That Shakes The Barley (NR), directed by Ken Loach, opens Friday, April 13, at Little Theatres | TheAnimation Show 2007(NR), curated by Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt, screens at the George Eastman House's Dryden Theatre Friday, April 13, 8 p.m.; Saturday, April 14, 5 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, April 15, 5 and 8 p.m. | Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts(NR) opens Friday, April 13, at Little Theatres.