If Withnail and I is the most influential international movie on Irish cinema then what about its homegrown equal? There's an unseen film from the dawn of the Board called Broken harvest. Nothing special, it looks like an Italian TV movie, yet it contains uncanny similarities with later Film Board titles. The first of the dreary 1950s rural squabble movies (Country, Korea). The bust up with the church goers (A love divided). The flashback from America structure (This is my father). The ugly scenes with the black and tans (Wind that shakes the barley). The farmers who don't get along (How Harry became a tree). The two kids playing with toy guns (Mikeybo and me). The parish dance (Stella days). The famer losing his cattle (Pilgrim Hill). There's even a guy in this movie who resembles Pat Shortt! What's strange about this picture is that it contains most clichés in Irish cinema yet for the following two decades the Film Board funded titles that were similar to many ideas found here. It's bizarre and too much of a coincidence?
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