British director Ken Loach has won the Cannes film festival's top prize, the coveted Palme d'Or, for his film The Wind That Shakes the Barley, which deals with Ireland's struggle from Britain in the 1920s.
It was Loach's eighth Cannes nomination, beating 19 others to win the prestigious prize.
The Wind That Shakes The Barley depicts the brutalities of war in the early days of the IRA, and Loach said it is also a critique of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
"Our film is a little, a very little step in the British confronting their imperialist history. Maybe if we tell the truth about the past, maybe we tell the truth about the present," he said as he accepted the award.
Jury members decided unanimously on the winning film, saying it reflected "compassion, hope, bonding and solidarity".
British actress and jury member Helena Bonham Carter said Loach's film had a deep impact on them.
"There was a tremendous humanity. I can't explain our mass reaction but we were all profoundly moved," she said.
Film stars newcomer
The director, who celebrates his 70th birthday next month, is known for his uncompromising films focusing on the harsh realities of life for the world's oppressed and forgotten, in a career that spans four decades.
His film stars newcomer Cillian Murphy as a young doctor who in 1920 abandons his plans to study in a London hospital to join his brother's rag-tag band of guerrillas fighting the ruthless British forces.
The film is brutal in its portrayal of the violence meted out by Britain's Black and Tans, the colloquial name for an irregular force of mostly former soldiers brought in by the British government after 1918 to assist the Royal Irish Constabulary in pacifying the countryside.
But the film also unflinchingly shows what happens when an unpopular peace treaty which pledges allegiance to the British crown tears the brothers apart.
In interviews earlier in the festival, Loach was unapologetic for the shocking scenes of brutality and torture in his film.
"We should be shocked by that, because all too often it's presented that we don't torture people, it's always the foreigners who torture people and it's not true," he told AFP, pointing to recent abuses by British and US troops in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and the US prison at Guantanamo Bay.
Palestinian director Elia Suleiman said the jury had not decided to award prizes to films dealing with certain topics, but rather had looked at how the story was told.
"I think what is interesting about the films in this competition is that a lot of them are engaged with the issues of the world today. I don't think it's by accident. We are living in a troubled global atmosphere," he said.
Surprise wins
Other surprise awards included the best actress prize awarded to the entire female cast of Spain's Pedro Alvodovar's Volver, led by actress Penelope Cruz.
And best actor went collectively to the cast of Days of Glory, French-Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb's look at soldiers from France's North African colonies who fought in World War II.
The runner-up taking the Grand Prix was Flanders, French filmmaker Bruno Dumont's stark portrayal of the brutalising effect of war on a young farmer who goes off to fight in a conflict, which the audience takes to be in Iraq.
Britain's Andrea Arnold won the Jury Prize for her first feature Red Road. Mexico's Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu walked off with best director's prize for Babel, a modern tale of miscommunication, which had also been a hot favourite for the top prize.
Shot in four languages, it traces the interlocking stories of four families whose lives are changed forever by a dangerous childish prank.
Nod for indigenous film
An Australian film by Rolf de Heer shot entirely in an indigenous language, with an indigenous cast took away a special jury prize.
The special jury prize is specific to the Un Certain Regard program and is totally separate from the much coveted Palme d'Or prize.
De Heer worked closely with the Yolngu people of Ramingining, Arnhem Land, to make Ten Canoes, with the actors speaking the indigenous dialect of Ganalbingu.
The film was shot over eight weeks last year and cost about A$3 million (US$2.4 million) to make.
Ten Canoes is a fictional story, set in the distant past, where
Dayindi (Jamie Gulpilil) is attracted to one of the wives of his older brother.
To teach him tribal law, his brother tells a mythical story of wrong love, kidnapping, sorcery and revenge.