AUGUST AT THE IFI
BOOKING FEES
Online and telephone bookings are subject to a booking fee of €1.00 per transaction. There are no booking fees on any ticket purchase made in person at the IFI Box Office.
POINTS
Members and Loyalty Card holders accrue points which can be exchanged for complimentary tickets.
CONTENTS
SCAN THE QR CODE TO VIEW OUR PROGRAMME ONLINE!
IFI SEASONS PAGE 4
IFI SPECIAL EVENTS PAGE 7
IFI
ADMISSION PRICES* Standard Price (Concession Price)
PAGE 14
PAGE 25
PAGE 26
Preview Screening Pricing: Non-Member: €16.00 (€14.00) / IFI Member: €14.00 (€12.50)
*regular IFI screenings, excluding special events ** plus €1.50 Daily Membership Fee
Ticket Prices
–
17.00 – 22.00
Child and Family ticket prices are available for titles with G, PG, 12A and 15A IFCO classification. These prices are separate to the special prices available for IFI Family screenings.
Open Captioned - see pg. 3 for programmed screenings.
Audio Described screenings available on selected titles, ask at Box Office for details.
For bookings and film information, please see our website, www.ifi.ie, or contact the IFI Box Office on 01-6793477 (open 12.30 to 21.00 daily) or at 6 Eustace Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.
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Eligible for 25 & Under card pricing, offering €5.00 to people aged 16-25 (excludes free-list suspended events such as festivals/70mm). Full details at ifi.ie/25under.
The F-rating is a classification reserved for any film which is directed and/or written by a woman.
Films not classified by IFCO, including festival, one-off, and special screenings, are exhibited under Club rules and are restricted to persons 18 years and over. If you are not an IFI member, a daily membership (€1.50) is required for unclassified films, and this will be added to your transaction.
The exclusivity of films is correct at the time of print. All films exclusive to the IFI are kindly supported by the Arts Council.
KEY DATES AT A GLANCE
THUR, JULY 31ST - MON, AUG 4TH
GAZE INTERNATIONAL LGBTQIA FILM FESTIVAL 2025 & FRI 1ST
OPENING: 2000 METRES TO ANDRIIVKA
OPENING: LATE SHIFT
OPENING: MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE 40TH ANNIVERSARY
OPENING: OSLO STORIES TRILOGY: DREAMS
WIM WENDERS:
5TH
OPENING:
OPENING:
JANE
WED 13TH
PREVIEW: MATERIALISTS
JANE
14TH
PREVIEW: MATERIALISTS
FRI 15TH
OPENING:
SAT 16TH
WED, SEPT 3RD
THUR, SEPT 4TH
IFI SEASONS PRESENTS
JANE ARDEN: A NEW COMMUNION
Jane Arden (1927-1982) was a leading figure in experimental British theatre and cinema, and an important radical feminist voice of the 1960s and ‘70s. Born in Wales, this director, actor, musician, and poet initially trained as a professional actress, a future derailed by marriage and children. Arden turned to writing, and had some success with stage and television projects. With her work increasingly informed by her politics, the beginning of a personal and professional relationship with director Jack Bond facilitated the move to film, and the small body of work for which she is here celebrated. Following her death, Bond withdrew these often strongly autobiographical films from circulation, only relenting decades later. Arden’s work is raw, perceptive, disturbing, vital, and often beautiful. We are pleased to present the work of an overlooked filmmaker wholly deserving of greater acclaim.
All feature films in this season will be available to rent on IFI@Home from Saturday, August 9th.
Season notes by Kevin Coyne.
JACK BOND
SAT 9TH (16.10)
Written by and starring Arden, Separation follows protagonist ‘Jane’, whose marital breakdown is mirrored in her mental state. The fractured narrative follows Jane through conversations with her husband (David de Keyser) and encounters with her lover (Iain Quarrier). Presented in a non-linear chronology, it makes for a heartfelt jigsaw of the collapse of a relationship with auspicious beginnings, and the loneliness felt by Jane even within the intimacy of marriage. Bond’s directorial style is influenced by European art cinema of the period, and although the fashions and soundtrack may date the film, the issues raised in Arden’s writing still resonate today. In an amusing footnote, it was ten minutes before its screening at the 1967 Cork Film Festival that the film was banned by the festival’s executive council, a decision festival director Dermot Breen attributed to “a very provincial committee”.
89 mins, UK, 1967, Digital, Colour and Black & White
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE UNDERNEATH VIBRATION / ANTI-CLOCK
SUN 10TH (16.00) WED 13TH (18.10)
In 1970, Arden formed the women’s theatre group Holocaust, whose first performance piece, A New Communion For Freaks, Prophets And Witches, would form the basis of this film - not only Arden’s sole film as director, but also the only British film of the 1970s solely directed by a woman. Arden was also becoming more aligned with the anti-psychiatry movement of the time, which sought to remove the social stigma of mental illness and accord patients more autonomy in treatment decisions. An unnamed woman (Susanka Fraey) is pulled unconscious from a lake and rushed to a psychiatric hospital. The group therapy sessions that follow devolve into visceral, disturbing imagery depicting the participants’ various mental states, all overseen by an authoritarian psychiatrist (Arden). The experience of filming proved so harrowing that it caused the break-up of Holocaust immediately upon the film’s completion.
After the experience of working as sole director on The Other Side of The Underneath , Arden returned to collaborating with Bond, this time sharing the director’s chair for what would be her final films. Vibration is infused with Arden’s developing interest in Sufism as she strives to depict the states of mind achieved through its devotional elements, something that gained greater familiarity with Western audiences years later with the Qawwali singing of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Anti-Clock builds on the techniques of the short’s sound and image manipulation as it appropriates the framework of science-fiction to explore the nature of memory and systems of control. Its fascination with the emerging video technology presages the evolution of the surveillance state and the work of auteurs such as Atom Egoyan, and brings a remarkable body of work to a suitably daring close.
JANE ARDEN
JANE ARDEN & JACK BOND
IFI FAMILY FESTIVAL 2025
Notes by Alicia McGivern FRI, AUGUST 15TH - SUN, AUGUST 17TH
Our annual 3 days of film for families opens this year with the Irish premiere of DJ and Graphic Novelist Kid Koala’s Space Cadet, about a young, space-mad girl and her guardian robot, preceded by starry crafts, workshops, and talks from Festival guests. Stage school fans will love Showkids, our sneak preview of RTÉ’s new series — created, written, and directed by Hugh O'Conor who will attend. Lots more premieres from around the world, shorts for the youngest viewers, and fun film activities will keep you and your young film fans in summer holiday mode. For more details see www.ifi.ie/familyfest
AUGUST 2025
IFI SPECIAL EVENTS
The Bigger Picture: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (35mm)
ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME IRISH FOCUS
O'Hara's Holiday
SOMETIME SUMMERTIME
Join us daily for FREE lunchtime screenings of films from the IFI Irish Film Archive. Simply collect your tickets online (with a small booking fee) or at IFI Box Office.
PROGRAMME ONE
AMHARC ÉIREANN: CÚRSAÍ ÓSTÁN
In this short from 1957, young women attend a hotel management course in Bundoran, Co. Donegal.
Dir. Gael Linn. 4 mins, Ireland, 1957, Digital, Black & White
IRELAND LAND OF WELCOME
A whistle-stop tour of Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Galway, Achill, and Sligo on a CIE Motor Coach.
Dir. Rex Roberts. 22 mins, Ireland, 1954, Digital
PROGRAMME TWO
O’HARA’S HOLIDAY
Stressed-out New York cop O’Hara travels to Ireland where he finds his roots and a charming young colleen, Kitty, into the bargain. Together they travel the country enjoying its simple rural charms and sophisticated Dublin nightlife.
Dir. Peter Bryan. 20 mins, Ireland, 1959, Digital
DREAMTOWN
STEVEN MCKENNA
THUR 14TH (18.30)
Mickey Richards (Anthony Murphy), a delusional, ageing rocker who never realised his dreams, lives a carefree life, untethered by responsibility — spending his days as a school janitor and his nights holding up the bar, spinning tales about his rock‘n’roll past to his much younger drinking buddies. Bartender Gina (Michelle Lucy), who is fond of Mickey, is as trapped in her dead-end present as he is in his irretrievable past. Following the end of his marriage, Mickey had neglected his son, Alan (Cian Hyland), but now that he is a musically gifted adult Mickey decides it is time to reconnect, but his clumsy attempts to impress only drive a deeper wedge between them.
Writer-director Steven McKenna’s warm, character-driven story is served well by a strong cast and by Jaro Waldeck’s skilful cinematography, elevating the film way beyond its micro budget.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Steven McKenna, Anthony Murphy, and Jaro Waldeck.
97 mins, Ireland, 2024, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
THE “WONDERFULLY INTERESTING, EXCITING, AND DANGEROUS WORLD” OF HAROLD JOHNSON
BEAT THE LOTTO
ROSS
WHITAKER
WED 20TH (18.30)
Harold Johnson (1910 - 1967) was a skilled amateur filmmaker, a Quaker, a businessman, and a loving and beloved family man. His collection of over 150 films was recently deposited by his family for preservation in the IFI Irish Film Archive. Shot on 8mm and 16mm film, in both sound and silent, between the 1930s and 1960s, the collection records family holidays, mountain climbing adventures, water skiing, motor racing, trips to Africa and the Holy Land, and Quaker activities such as annual gatherings at Newtown School, Waterford, and charitable works in Dublin. Johnson was the owner of the Irel Coffee factory and his film of the plant in Clonard Road, Kimmage provides a rare glimpse into Dublin’s industrial past. Meticulously edited, often playful, historically invaluable - these films are a joy to behold. The screening will be introduced by members of the Johnson family and archivist Ana Levisky. The silent films in the programme will have accompaniment by pianist Morgan Cooke.
WED 27TH & FRI 29TH (11.00)
‘If you’re not in, you can’t win’, or so the motto goes. But back in the 1990s, when the lotto was a source of national pride, a small syndicate, led by mathematician Stefan Klincewicz, set out to beat the system. Director Ross Whitaker’s approach reveals the facts of the plot enticingly, how the group was convened and tutored by Klincewicz to buy up every possible combination of numbers. Revelatory about the country we once were, divided into those who were shocked, and those who were more than happy about the clever attempt to stick it to the lotto man.
Director Ross Whitaker will introduce both screenings of the film.
Wild Strawberries is our monthly film club for the over 55s. Tickets are just €5.50 for IFI Members and €6.00 for non-members, and include a free tea or coffee!
80
60 mins approx Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
HAROLD JOHNSON
mins, Ireland, 2025, Digital Notes by Alicia McGivern
THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE 35MM
TOBE HOOPER
THUR 28TH (18.30)
Tobe Hooper’s seminal debut, screening here on 35mm, still stands as one of the most influential horror films ever made, making its mark on successive generations since its release half a century ago. Five friends on a road trip fall foul of a degenerate family with murderous intent and cannibalistic desires. Led by the iconic Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), the family pick the group off one by one. Although undeniably bleak, there is a vein of black humour in the film, and it is important to note that its effect comes largely from its atmosphere, suggestive visuals, and unsettling soundtrack; it is in fact far less violent than its reputation suggests, and is certainly more restrained than many modern horror films.
The screening will be introduced by Ian Lynch of Lankum.
BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN
SERGEI EISENSTEIN
SAT 30TH
(13.40)
Russian director and film theorist Sergei Eisenstein made an immediate and definitive mark on the future of cinema with his first two features, both released in 1925, Strike and Battleship Potemkin. Commissioned as part of the twentieth anniversary celebrations of the Russian Revolution, Potemkin is a dramatisation of the events surrounding a famous navy mutiny. Although intended as a mere propaganda film, Eisenstein used it to test his theories of montage, believing that careful editing would elicit the desired emotional responses from audiences. This inarguable totem of world cinema is here presented with an accompanying score by Pet Shop Boys.
73 mins, USSR, 1925, Digital, Black & White, Silent Notes by Kevin Coyne
83 mins, USA, 1974, 35mm Notes by Kevin Coyne
JAWS 50TH ANNIVERSARY
MYSTERY MATINEE
STEVEN SPIELBERG
SAT 30TH (15.30), SUN 31ST (15.40), & THUR, SEPT 4TH (18.15)
The film for which the term ‘blockbuster’ was invented, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws receives a welcome rerelease for its fiftieth anniversary. Based on Peter Benchley’s bestselling novel, it sees the small community of Amity Island, which relies on tourism, come under threat when a great white shark makes its home offshore, causing a number of fatalities. Ocean-fearing but determined Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) teams up with oceanographer Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw) to find and kill the deadly predator. The film is filled with classic dialogue (“You’re gonna need a bigger boa t”, Quint’s USS Indianapolis speech) and terrifying moments, accompanied by John Williams’s superlative score, for which he won the second of his five Oscars. Fifty years on, Jaws is still a masterclass in suspense and horror, no less gripping today than on its first release.
mins, USA, 1975, Digital
SUN 31ST (13.00)
Join us for this month’s screening at 13.00 on Sunday, August 31st. The film chosen could be anything from throughout the history of cinema, from a silent classic to a preview of a hotly anticipated upcoming release.
Whether it’s a title that one might expect to see at the IFI, or a film more at home in the multiplexes, the secret, closely guarded even from IFI staff, will be kept until the title appears onscreen. Expect the unexpected and take a chance, with tickets costing just €6.50 for IFI Members, and €7.00 for non-members.
A full list of previous screenings is available from www.ifi.ie/mystery-matinee-archive
115
Notes by Kevin Coyne
MYSTERY MATINEE
IFI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL 2025
WED, SEPTEMBER 10TH — SUN, SEPTEMBER 14TH
This year’s IFI Documentary Festival, our annual celebration of non-fiction filmmaking, brings together bold voices, urgent topics, and inventive forms, offering a window into stories and contemporary realities from around the world. Highlights in the international programme include How to Build a Library, an inspirational tale of triumph over adversity from Kenya; Mistress Dispeller, which explores the work of Wang Zhenxi as she breaks up affairs by any means necessary; and André is an Idiot, a life-affirming film about death. Closer to home, Gerry Adams: A Ballymurphy Man profiles one of the most controversial leaders of our time; and Myrid Carten’s acclaimed A Want in Her follows the director’s search for her missing mother.
Notes by David O’Mahony
IFI NEW RELEASES DOCS & CLASSICS
LOVE SEX DREAMS
FROM FRI 1ST NEW
17-year-old student Johanne (Ella Øverbye) is in love with her teacher, also called Johanna (though spelled differently), a charismatic, bohemian young woman. Johanne documents the intense swirl of emotions in a confessional manuscript; when her mother and grandmother read what she has written, they are initially shocked by the intimacy of Johanne’s writing but are captivated by the literary flair of her words. Amid discussions of publishing, each woman confronts her own unfulfilled dreams and emotional silences. Johanne’s grandmother, Karin (Anne Marit Jacobsen), a once celebrated poet in creative decline, wrestles with pride and envy as Johanne’s burgeoning talent threatens to eclipse her own. Dreams, winner of the Golden Bear for Best Film at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, is a poetic, multigenerational meditation on first love, memory, and authorship.
FROM FRI 15TH
Marianne (Andrea Braien Hovig), a pragmatic, unattached Oslo doctor specialising in urology, is taking a ferry to a nearby island where she has been set up on a blind date with Ole Harald ( Thomas Gullestad ), a divorced geologist, when she runs into her nurse colleague Tor ( Tayo Citadella Jacobsen), a sexually confident gay man who uses the ferry as a venue for hook-ups arranged on dating apps. Tor, who often spends whole nights on the ferry seeking casual encounters with men, shares his experiences of spontaneous intimacy. Intrigued by his fresh perspective on love, Marianne begins to explore whether casual intimacy could also be an option for her. With Love, Haugerud questions conventions with a wry sense of humour, while treating his characters with compassion, delivering a moving treatise on contemporary relationships.
FROM FRI 22ND
Two Oslo chimney sweeps share frank confessions on a coffee break at the beginning of Dag Johan Haugerud’s insightful, candid investigation into contemporary male identity and sexuality. Both men are in heterosexual marriages, yet have had an unexpected experience that challenges them to reconsider their understanding of sexuality, gender, and identity. One has recently had an impromptu sexual encounter with another man, without considering it either as an expression of homosexuality or infidelity, and has shared the experience with his wife afterwards. The other finds himself in dreams where he is a woman being admired by none other than David Bowie, stirring confusion and leading him to question how much his personality is shaped by the gaze of others and whether there are aspects of himself that he has suppressed.
110 mins, Norway, 2024, Digital, Subtitled Notes by David O’Mahony
118 mins, Norway, 2024, Digital, Subtitled Notes by David O’Mahony
110 mins, Norway, 2024, Digital, Subtitled Notes by David O’Mahony
DAG JOHAN HAUGERUD
2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA
MSTYSLAV CHERNOV
FROM FRI 1ST
LATE SHIFT
(HELDIN)
PETRA BIONDINA VOLPE
CINEMA: FROM FRI 1ST IFI@HOME: FROM FRI 22ND 20 Days in Mariupol gave audiences a visceral view of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; Mstyslav Chernov now turns his lens towards Ukrainian soldiers and the impossible decisions they face as they fight for every inch of land. Amid a failing counteroffensive in 2023, Chernov follows a Ukrainian platoon traversing through a stretch of heavily fortified forest on their mission to liberate the small, Russian-occupied village of Andriivka. But as the film intimately reveals, the farther the soldiers advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realise that, for them, this war may never end. 2000 Meters to Andriivka documents a battle emblematic of the broader Russian-Ukraine war – the largest military operation in Europe since World War II – and presents a view of modern warfare reminiscent of battles fought nearly a century ago.
Floria Lind (Leonie Benesch) is a dedicated surgical nurse in a Swiss hospital, navigating the relentless pace on her ward with unwavering professionalism, infusing humanity and warmth into her patient care despite the punishing workload and incessant demands on her time. When a colleague calls in sick one evening, she’s left understaffed and overwhelmed with patients: a critically ill mother, an elderly man anxiously awaiting his diagnosis, and a demanding private patient accustomed to extra perks. With the pressure mounting, and the added burden of having to mind a trainee, Floria makes a simple mistake, and a nerve-wracking race against time begins. Leonie Benesch (The Teachers’ Lounge) delivers a powerful, nuanced performance, portraying Floria’s unwavering empathy, proficiency, and vulnerability as she navigates an increasingly fraught set of circumstances.
91 mins, Switzerland-Germany, 2025, Digital, Subtitled Notes by David O’Mahony
107 mins, Ukraine-USA, 2025, Digital Notes by David O’Mahony
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE 40TH ANNIVERSARY
STEPHEN FREARS
FROM FRI 8TH
The film that jumpstarted the careers of both director Stephen Frears and star Daniel Day-Lewis, My Beautiful Laundrette, originally intended for television, only saw cinemas because of the rapturous acclaim it received when premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Subversive and progressive, Hanif Kureishi’s script is set in Thatcherite London of the mid-1980s, where Omar (Gordon Warnecke), a closeted Pakistani, hopes to escape his bitter, defeated father (Roshan Seth) with the help of his entrepreneur uncle Nasser (Saeed Jaffrey). Following a racist attack led by former acquaintance Johnny (Day-Lewis), Omar enlists Johnny to help him renovate and make a success of Nasser’s run-down laundrette. The two begin a love affair, but face pressures from their respective communities to return to the fold and conform to expectations. Frears’s film still seems bold and brave, while Day-Lewis’s astonishing talent shines through.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 16.00 on Tuesday 5th, and 20.30 on Wednesday 6th.
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY 30TH ANNIVERSARY
ANG LEE
FROM FRI 8TH
The sensibilities of Ang Lee, Jane Austen, and Emma Thompson (who won an Oscar for the screenplay) blend seamlessly in this much-loved 1995 adaptation of Austen’s first novel.
Eldest sister Elinor Dashwood (Emma Thompson) cannot help but be reserved and thoughtful, whilst free-spirited Marianne (a 19-year-old Kate Winslet) overflows with passion and will. When their father’s death renders them homeless due to half-brother John and his wife Fanny (a wonderfully wicked Harriet Walter) inheriting their family home, Elinor and Marianne must grapple with being considered preying, penniless women by some, as they attempt to carve space for love within the necessary business of marriage.
A rich supporting cast, including Gemma Jones, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Imelda Staunton, and Hugh Laurie, further enhance this moving and funny drama.
97 mins, UK, 1985, Digital Notes by Kevin Coyne
136 mins, UK-USA, 1995, Digital Notes by Saidhbh Ní Dhúlaing
THE KINGDOM YOUNG HEARTS
FROM FRI 8TH
Julien Colonna’s debut feature masterfully blends a coming-of-age tale with the gripping dynamics of a mafia drama. Set in 1995 against the starkly beautiful Corsican coastline, we are introduced to fifteen-year-old Lesia (Ghjuvanna Benedetti) as she enjoys a carefree summer of partying with friends and flirting with a local boy. We soon learn, however, that Lesia is the daughter Pierre-Paul (Saveriu Santucci), the head of a notorious mafia family who is about to enter into a bloody war with a rival gang. Before Lesia knows what’s happening, she finds herself being driven to an isolated house where her father is holed up with his troops; as she gradually becomes aware of the breadth of her father’s criminal empire, she is initiated into a violent world that always existed on her periphery.
Are you an IFI Friend? Join us for our next IFI Cinema Club discussion after the screening at 18.15 on Tuesday 12th.
CINEMA: FROM FRI 8TH IFI@HOME: COMING THIS AUTUMN!
Elias (Lou Goossens), a shy 14-year-old, lives in a quiet Belgian town with his family, helping with his father’s music gigs, and having innocent sleepovers with his girlfriend. When Alexander (Marius De Saeger) moves in across the street, the two boys immediately hit it off, and Elias welcomes the more confident boy from Brussels into his group. However, Elias soon finds himself drawn into a turbulent and confusing attraction that challenges his understanding of friendship, love, and his own identity. As their bond intensifies, the boys are forced to confront the expectations of family, the scrutiny of peers, and their own fears about being vulnerable and different. Schatteman captures the intensity of teenage emotion with sensitivity and grace, using naturalistic performances and poetic visual storytelling to portray the longing and confusion that accompany first love.
JULIEN COLONNA
ANTHONY SCHATTEMAN
112 mins, France, 2024, Digital, Subtitled Notes by David O’Mahony
99 mins, Belgium, 2024, Digital, Subtitled Notes by David O’Mahony
(LE ROYAUME)
CENTRAL STATION 4K
(CENTRAL DO BRASIL)
WALTER SALLES
CINEMA: FROM FRI 15TH IFI@HOME: FROM MON, SEPT 1ST
Brazilian director Walter Salles, whose latest film, I’m Still Here, was a huge hit at the IFI earlier this year, made his international breakthrough with Central Station, which also marked his first collaboration with the great Fernanda Montenegro. For her work, she received the rare accolade of a Best Actress Oscar nomination for a non-English language performance, while Central Station itself was also nominated for Best Foreign Language film. Cynical, bitter Dora (Montenegro) is a retired schoolteacher who makes a living writing letters on behalf of the illiterate. When a customer dies, a bemused Dora, to her chagrin, finds herself responsible for the woman’s child, nine-year-old Josué (Vinícius de Oliveira), who she accompanies on a trip in search of his unknown absentee father. Salles eschews overt sentimentality but still creates a deeply moving film, anchored by Montenegro’s careful, thoughtful performance.
110 mins, Brazil-France, 1998, Subtitled, 4K Digital
MATERIALISTS
CELINE SONG
FROM FRI 15TH (PREVIEWS FROM WED 13TH)
Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is a New York City matchmaker who pairs up potential mates based on criteria such as height, age, and, crucially, finances. Her philosophy is challenged by Harry (Pedro Pascal), a wealthy stranger she meets at a wedding, and the surprise return of her ex-boyfriend John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor. Though she deals in matters of the heart, Lucy herself remains detached, her cynicism sharpened by a past of emotional disappointments and her determination to control her own financial and romantic fate. The familiar beats of the romcom are reinvigorated by Celine Song’s (Past Lives, 2023) mastery of tone, and razor-sharp writing; reframing romantic love as a transaction between business interests, her script sidesteps sentimentality in favour of a grown-up, worldly-wise view of contemporary relationships where fiscal security is at least as desirable as physical attraction.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 15.30 on Friday 15th, and 18.00 on Thursday 21st.
116 mins, USA, 2025, Digital Notes by David O’Mahony
Notes by Kevin Coyne
TOGETHER
FROM FRI 15TH
A couple whose relationship has stagnated encounter a supernatural force that brings them closer than they ever thought possible in writer-director Michael Shanks’s inventively squirm-inducing comedy-horror which gives new meaning to the term 'clingy'. Swapping city life for rural isolation, Tim and Millie have relocated to the countryside for her new job, a sacrifice struggling musician Tim is willing to make, even if it permanently quashes his rock star dreams. While hiking in the woods one day, they fall into a crevasse and are trapped. Desperately thirsty, Tim drinks from a strange pool of water, and when they manage to make their way back home, he keeps getting glued to Millie whenever they touch. Real life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie give wholly committed performances, quite literally throwing themselves into this frequently hilarious satire of co-dependency.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 18.00 on Monday 18th, and 16.10 on Wednesday 20th.
FROM FRI 22ND
A multi-target satire that takes aim at conspiracy theories, Covid, fake news, gun ownership, Black Lives Matter, and sundry other causes of contemporary American anxiety, Eddington is destined to be as divisive as Beau is Afraid, Aster’s brilliant, misunderstood previous film. Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) is the reactionary sheriff of the titular town during the 2020 lockdown; his contrary attitude to the mask mandate puts him in conflict with the progressive mayor, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal). Although he’s now married to troubled artist Louise (Emma Stone), Joe has never been able to let go of the fact that she once dated Ted, and his anger inspires him to announce his own candidacy for mayor. Needless to say, unforeseen, bizarre, and often hilarious consequences ensue.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 20.00 on Sunday 24th, and 15.20 on Tuesday 26th.
102 mins, USA, 2025, Digital Notes by David O’Mahony
148 mins, USA, 2025, Digital Notes by David O’Mahony
MICHAEL SHANKS
ARI ASTER
PUT YOUR SOUL ON YOUR HAND AND WALK
SEPIDEH FARSI
FROM FRI 22ND
Put your Soul on your Hand and Walk offers an intimate, first-hand perspective on life under siege in Gaza, captured through video calls between Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi and 24-year-old Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona over the course of 2024. Their digital dialogue became a vital record, bearing witness to everyday life, loss, and acts of resistance amid escalating violence. Just one day after the film’s selection to the ACID section of the Cannes Film Festival, Fatma was tragically killed in an Israeli airstrike on her home. This heartbreaking loss deepens the film’s impact, which combines raw immediacy with profound humanity, portraying daily life during the conflict through the eyes of a generation caught in a seemingly endless cycle of war.
SORRY, BABY
EVA VICTOR
FROM FRI 22ND
Something bad happened to Agnes. But life goes on, at least for everyone around her. Writerdirector and lead actor Eva Victor shuffles the chronology of her wonderfully delicate and surprisingly humorous feature debut, presenting fragments of several years in the life of Agnes, her twenty-something English professor protagonist, as she explores from several angles the legacy of a traumatic event. Set in a small coastal New England college town, we first meet Agnes as her best friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie), newly married with a baby on the way, arrives for a long-overdue visit to the house they shared as graduate students. Victor broadens her scope in subsequent flashbacks, adding light and shade to her story, deftly avoiding sentimentality, displaying mastery of tone as she allows the full picture of what happened to Agnes time to develop.
110 mins, Occupied Palestinian Territory-Iran-France 2025, Digital, Subtitled Notes by David O’Mahony
103 mins, USA, 2025, Digital Notes by David O’Mahony
THE LIFE OF CHUCK CHRISTY
FROM FRI 22ND (PREVIEWS FROM WED 20TH)
Like Frank Darabont before him, Mike Flanagan has often found inspiration in the work of Stephen King, including Doctor Sleep (2019), sequel to The Shining. The Life Of Chuck , People’s Choice Award winner at TIFF 2024, comes from the more humanist end of King’s work, of a piece with Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me (1986). It begins with a depiction of a planet coming apart at the seams as all manners of inexplicable natural disasters become commonplace. Teacher Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is distracted from the imminent end of everything by the constant appearance of baffling billboards and advertisements thanking Charles Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) for 39 great years. How this Twilight Zone -esque mystery is resolved, in deeply moving fashion, involves extended dance sequences, Walt Whitman, a grizzled Mark Hamill, and is best discovered for oneself.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 13.20 on Friday 22nd, and 18.15 on Wednesday 27th.
FROM FRI 29TH
When vulnerable 17-year-old Christy (Danny Power) is thrown out of foster care, he moves in with his estranged older brother Shane (Diarmuid Noyes), once troubled but now gainfully employed, with a loving partner (Emma Willis) and a new baby. Christy begins to feel at home in Knocknaheeny, reconnecting with reprobate cousins, making new friends, and finding a surprising niche for himself within the community. But the brothers must come to terms with the past before forging a bright future.
This perfect gem of a film is funny, uplifting and so authentic in tone that it feels as if it has been co-authored by the community it represents (not least the rapping kids of the Kabin Crew).
The preview screening on Thursday 21st will be followed by a Q&A with director Brendan Canty.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 18.00 on Saturday 30th, and 16.00 on Wednesday, September 3rd.
111 mins, USA, 2024, Digital Notes by Kevin Coyne
99 mins, Ireland, 2025, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
MIKE FLANAGAN
BRENDAN CANTY
)
YORGOS LANTHIMOS
CINEMA & IFI@HOME: FROM FRI 29TH
Yorgos Lanthimos’s third film was his international breakthrough, winner of the Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2009 and nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Following his earlier efforts, Dogtooth, an unnervingly dark comedy, was a much more confident directorial outing that established a stylistic template still observable in Lanthimos’s recent work, including The Killing of A Sacred Deer (2017), The Favourite (2018), and Poor Things (2023). In a fenced compound lives a family under the strict control of a father (Christos Stergioglou) who takes perverse pleasure in feeding the children misinformation. Now adults, the son (Christos Passalis) and daughters (Angeliki Papoulia, Mary Tsoni) have no knowledge of the world beyond the fence, any natural curiosity conditioned out of them. The slow disintegration of their strange innocence and family life begins with the introduction of sex.
YOUNG MOTHERS
(JEUNES MÈRES)
JEAN-PIERRE & LUC DARDENNE
FROM FRI 29TH
Young Mothers explores the lives of underprivileged teenagers as they grapple with the challenges of parenting a newborn whilst managing their own troubled backgrounds and complex family dynamics. With characteristic empathy, the two-time Palme d’Or-winning Dardenne brothers follow the experiences of several such girls housed in a residential shelter in Liege, Belgium. Jessica is heavily pregnant and seeks to contact the woman who gave her up to the care system as a baby. Julie considers giving up her daughter for adoption, yet her own troubled mother wishes to raise the child to atone for her past mistakes. Perla, mother to baby Noe, naively hopes her delinquent boyfriend will settle down and start a family. And Ariane, who has the privilege of a loving partner, is at odds with her physically and emotionally abusive mother.
Belgium-France,
105 mins,
2025, Digital, Subtitled Notes by David O’Mahony
97 mins, Greece, 2009, Digital, Subtitled Notes by Kevin Coyne
BALLYMUN COMMUNITY FILMS
AVAILABLE NOW WORLDWIDE
The IFI Irish Film Archive, in partnership with Ballymun Communications and with the support of Coimisiún na Meán, is proud to announce the IFI Archive Player launch of Ballymun Community Films, a remarkable 20 film collection capturing more than 40 years of life in one of Ireland’s most storied communities. It is a snapshot of the larger Ballymun Communications Archive, and additionally features a selection of Ballymun related and inspired films including Bread & Circus’s acclaimed 2017 documentary The 4th Act, directed by Turlough Kelly and produced by Andrew Keogh, which turns a critical eye on the regeneration process.
Ballymun Community Films is a personal insight into the life of Ballymun: its vibrant arts and music scene, community-led education and employment initiatives, the slow decline of its town centre, and the sweeping regeneration project that dramatically reshaped the area. Ballymun, established in 1967 to ease overcrowding in Dublin’s city centre, became Ireland’s first and largest high-rise housing development. While often defined by its social challenges in media coverage, Ballymun is also a place of extraordinary community spirit, creativity, and resilience - qualities reflected throughout this collection.
Speaking of this landmark community heritage project, IFI Archive Policy and Project Manager Niall Anderson, a Ballymun native, who managed the project at the IFI, said: “The strong community spirit evident in the films extended into the work of the project. If one of our cataloguers couldn’t identify a person or location in a film, we turned it over to community groups online, and within an hour we’d have our answer. With the full archive preserved, we were delighted to create a showcase of 550 films from the larger collection, which has now been returned to Ballymun Communications who will make it accessible to the entire community.”
Ballymun Community Films is now available free-to-view worldwide on the IFI Archive Player at ifiarchiveplayer.ie/ballymun. The Ballymun Communications Archive can be viewed at ballymuncommunications.com
SCAN THE QR CODE TO VIEW THE IFI ARCHIVE PLAYER!
Paris, Texas
WIM WENDERS: KING OF THE ROAD
STREAMING NOW!
Coming to cinema via a long and winding road that included studies of medicine, philosophy, and a stint as an engraver, Wim Wenders released his first feature, Summer In The City, in 1970. Although he would later speak of his first films as derivative, the themes that would recur throughout his subsequent work were already apparent; perhaps inspired by his youth in a divided country, Wenders’s films explore the individual’s isolation and alienation within society, the relationship between time and memory, the lure of the concept of America, and the determined search for a vague something that keeps his characters in constant, restless movement, flitting from place to place in jaded but resilient hope. These German films, shot by Robby Müller, the first in a line of frequent collaborators that includes musician Ry Cooder and a number of recurring actors, saw Wenders assume a leading role in the New German Cinema movement, and afforded him the opportunity to explore American myths on screen, as in Paris, Texas (1984).
Over subsequent years, Wenders created films that ranged from the heartbreakingly beautiful lyricism of Wings Of Desire (1987) to the genre experiment of Until The End Of The World (1991) and beyond. Like fellow countryman Werner Herzog before him, Wenders had often made documentaries, both short-form and feature length, but it was only in later years that this work garnered greater attention, revitalising his career and bringing him significant success and new audiences. Beginning with Buena Vista Social Club (1999) and on to his success with Pina (2011), in which he made brilliant, innovative use of 3D, the acclaim accorded to his documentary work has equalled that of his fiction narratives. Wenders’s body of work makes for an extraordinarily rich viewing experience, as presented in this selection of his films for IFI@Home.
SCAN HERE TO EXPLORE THE COLLECTION
STREAMING THIS AUGUST ON IFI@HOME
NEW RELEASE
NEW RELEASE
NEW RELEASE
ALONG CAME LOVE
KATELL QUILLÉVÉRÉ
STREAMING NOW!
A complex love story told over two decades, delving into themes of deception, shame, and love.
BLUE ROAD: THE EDNA O'BRIEN STORY
SINÉAD O’SHEA
STREAMING NOW!
Completed shortly before Edna O'Brien's death, this documentary explores the colourful life and work of the international literary sensation.
JULIE KEEPS QUIET
LEONARDO VAN DIJL
STREAMING NOW!
A talented young tennis player comes under pressure to talk when her coach is investigated for abusing his position.
MOTEL DESTINO
KARIM AÏNOUZ
STREAMING NOW!
On the run from the police and the gang he let down following a botched robbery, twenty-one-year-old Heraldo seeks refuge at the Motel Destino.
‘Genius’
The Gate Theatre presents From the writer of IN BRUGES, THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN and THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE
by Martin McDonagh
Directed by Lyndsey Turner NOW ON until 7th September
Tickets from €26.50* gatetheatre.ie
*Includes €1.50 Building Upkeep Levy