JULY 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 11
IFI NEW RELEASES, DOCS & CLASSICS PAGE 20 IFI@HOME PAGE 26
ADMISSION PRICES* Standard Price (Concession Price)
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
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
FRI 4TH
OPENING IN CINEMA: BEAT THE LOTTO
OPENING IN CINEMA: HEARTS OF DARKNESS 4K RE-RELEASE
OPENING IN CINEMA: HOT MILK
OPENING IN CINEMA: THE SHROUDS
BEAT THE LOTTO + Q&A C 18.30
SAT 5TH
AUSTRALIAN DREAMS: WALKABOUT C 16.00 SUN 6TH
AUSTRALIAN DREAMS: WAKE IN FRIGHT C 16.00 MON 7TH
IFI & IMDT: DANCER FROM THE DANCE 2025
18.30 OC SCREENING: HEARTS OF DARKNESS 4K RE-RELEASE
20.40 TUES 8TH
IFI CINEMA CLUB: HOT MILK + POST-SCREENING DISCUSSION C 18.30
WED 9TH
OC SCREENING: HEARTS OF DARKNESS 4K RE-RELEASE C 15.50
AUSTRALIAN DREAMS: THE LAST WAVE C 18.30 FRI 11TH
OPENING IN CINEMA: ARMAND
OPENING IN CINEMA: NINE QUEENS 4K
12TH
APOCALYPSE NOW: FINAL CUT
AUSTRALIAN DREAMS: THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH
13TH
TUES 15TH IRISH FOCUS: IOMÁNAÍOCHT HOLLYWOOD
14.00
18TH OPENING IN CINEMA:
IFI SEASONS PRESENTS AUSTRALIAN DREAMS
Despite the Australian film industry’s pioneering work in the early days of cinema, including The Story Of The Kelly Gang (1906), acknowledged by UNESCO as the world’s first full-length narrative feature film, it soon began a long period in the doldrums. It wasn’t until the 1970s that the industry was revitalised by government support that allowed low budget filmmaking to flourish. These budgets lent themselves to genre filmmaking in particular, and this new wave of filmmakers focused on Australian stories and culture to create the ‘Ozploitation’ style. Over the ’70s and ‘80s, films as diverse as Picnic At Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975, recently screened at the IFI), Mad Max (George Miller, 1979), and Crocodile Dundee (Peter Faiman, 1986) drew international attention and facilitated a trade in talent between this now-burgeoning industry and that of Hollywood, who utilised the unique perspectives of Australian filmmakers and the country’s stunning terrain.
Over the years, the body of work has been added to by an increasing number of women and particularly Indigenous Australian filmmakers, whose work frequently explores the dispossession of their people, and their status and continuing struggles in contemporary Australian society. The selection of films in this season gives a brief overview of thirty years of vibrant and idiosyncratic filmmaking of which critic Roger Ebert said, “You can search in vain through the national cinema for characters who are ordinary or even boring; everyone is more colourful than life”.
The IFI would like to thank Dr Enda Murray for his assistance in compiling this season. Dr Murray is based in Sydney and is the director of the Irish Film Festival Australia. Season notes by Kevin Coyne.
Bad Boy Bubby
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander audiences are advised that this season may contain the names, images, and voices of people who have died.
WALKABOUT
WAKE IN FRIGHT
Despite its British director, here making his solo debut in the role, and lead performers, Walkabout is considered one of the first films of the Australian New Wave and showcased the country’s beauty to the wider world. Following a traumatic event, a girl (Jenny Agutter) and her brother (Roeg’s son Lucien) are left alone in the Outback. Ill-equipped to deal with its hardships, they are rescued by an Aboriginal boy (David Gulpilil). Despite the lack of fluency in a common language, the two boys bond, though the girl remains aloof, rebuffing equally the overtures at friendship and romance made to her. Roeg’s film is a children’s adventure film with deeply adult themes of innocence and experience, and of cultures clashing.
Contains scenes of animal cruelty that some viewers may find upsetting. SAT 5TH (16.00) SUN 6TH (16.00)
What Nick Cave calls “the best and most terrifying film about Australia in existence” languished in obscurity following its premiere at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival (where both it and Walkabout screened in competition) before being restored and presented again at Cannes in 2009 by Martin Scorsese as “a deeply – and I mean deeply – unsettling and disturbing movie”. Arrogant schoolteacher John Grant (Gary Bond) has been forced to take a position in a remote township. Returning to Sydney for Christmas, he must overnight in a mining town known as ‘the Yabba’. The bonhomie of the locals, particularly the eccentric ‘Doc’ Tydon (Donald Pleasance), has the effect of brutalising Grant, stripping away his urbane façade and revealing a drunken, selfdestructive thug.
100 mins, UK-Australia-USA, 1971, Digital
109 mins, Australia, 1971, Digital
TED KOTCHEFF NICOLAS ROEG
THE LAST WAVE
THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH
WED 9TH (18.30) SAT 12TH (16.00)
Perhaps the Australian director who would go on to have the most successful American career with films such as Dead Poets Society (1989) and The Truman Show (1998), Peter Weir’s early works at home, such as The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) and the recently rereleased Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975), fit more easily in the cult film category. The Last Wave, whose influence can be seen on the likes of Jeff Nichols’s Take Shelter (2011), takes place in an Australia beset by unusual weather. Public defender David Burton (Richard Chamberlain) is appointed to the case of four Aboriginal men accused of murder. He begins to have strange, apocalyptic dreams whose potency leads him further into Aboriginal myth and legend.
Yet another Australian director who would go on to Hollywood success with films including, appropriately enough, Meryl Streep-starrer A Cry In The Dark (1988), Fred Schepisi’s The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith is based on the true story of Jimmy Governor, an Indigenous Australian who murdered a number of white people in 1900. Jimmie (Tommy Lewis), born of an Aboriginal mother and white father, is determined to better his lowly situation, but faces systemic racism and humiliation at every turn, often denied even basic civility. His white wife cuckolds him, employers cheat him, and ultimately Jimmie explodes, declaring war on his oppressors. The film marked an important chapter in Australian film for its representation of Indigenous Australians and their abominable treatment.
106 mins, Australia, 1977, Digital
108 mins, Australia, 1978, Digital
FRED SCHEPISI
PETER WEIR
MAD MAX
MY BRILLIANT CAREER
SUN 13TH (16.00)
The first entry in what would become a globally successful franchise famed for its astonishing action set-pieces is a more downbeat and less spectacular film than the explosive sequels that were to follow. In his breakthrough, and arguably most iconic role, Mel Gibson is Max Rockatansky, a member of one of Australia’s last law enforcement agencies in a dystopian future ravaged by economic and ecological disaster. Growing frustrated at the crumbling legal system’s inability to stop a marauding motorbike gang from terrorising the area, Max decides to leave the force and live a peaceful, isolated existence with his wife and child in the countryside. However, when the gang ensures that this will never happen, Max sets out for bloody revenge.
THUR 17TH (18.30)
Prior to the emergence of My Brilliant Career, it had been nearly half a century since an Australian feature had been directed by a woman. Featuring Judy Davis and Sam Neill, both in the early stages of what would become their own illustrious careers, it is the story of Sybylla (Davis), a headstrong woman in late-nineteenth century rural Australia who dreams of becoming a writer. Her frustrated parents send her to her grandmother’s, where she is distracted by Frank (Robert Grubb) and Harry (Neill). Her inclination towards Harry angers the jealous Frank, who tries to break the couple up. Her hopes are further derailed when she is forced to take a position as a governess. Armstrong’s feminist film remains beautiful and vibrant.
93 mins, Australia, 1979, Digital
100 mins, Australia, 1979, Digital
GILLIAN ARMSTRONG
GEORGE MILLER
BREAKER MORANT
MAD MAX 2: THE ROAD WARRIOR
SAT 19TH (16.00)
A key figure in the movement with films such as Puberty Blues (1981), before leaving for Hollywood success with films such as Driving Miss Daisy (1989), director Bruce Beresford here tackles one of the British military’s first prosecutions of its own men for war crimes. During the Boer War, Lieutenants Morant (Edward Woodward), Handcock (Bryan Brown, who would also go on to become a familiar face in American films), and Witton (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) stand accused of the murder of enemy prisoners and a civilian. As they are clearly shown to be guilty, Beresford’s film has space to explore issues around the dehumanising nature of war, in actions undertaken through one’s own initiative and in those one is ordered to complete.
SUN 20TH (16.00)
The first live-action sequel in Australian cinema was new and original in other ways too. Leaning into the more understated action elements and post-apocalyptic aesthetic of the original, the astonishing direction of George Miller, who had in some ways been unhappy with Max’s previous iteration, created a new model for action films. Max (Mel Gibson), haunted by the death of his family, lives a life of mere survival, driving aimlessly around the Outback, his dog his only company, the search for food and more gasoline his only purpose. Finding a group of settlers with their own working oil refinery, he is drawn into a conflict between them and a group of marauders under the dominion of the fearsome Lord Humungus.
107 mins, Australia, 1980, Digital
96 mins, Australia, 1981, Digital
GEORGE MILLER
BRUCE BERESFORD
THE YEAR MY VOICE BROKE
MY SURVIVAL AS AN ABORIGINAL /
BEDEVIL
Featuring breakout performances from Noah Taylor and Ben Mendelsohn, The Year My Voice Broke is an autobiographical coming-of-age story from director John Duigan (whose future American career would include 1997’s superb Lawn Dogs). Set in rural Australia in the early ‘60s, it follows Danny (Taylor), a typically shy and awkward 15-year-old, as he deals with his developing feelings for lifelong friend Freya (Loene Carmen), an adopted girl whose parentage is the source of much local speculation. She in turn is attracted to local tough guy Trevor (Mendelsohn). The first in what was intended to be a trilogy, the film was followed by 1991’s Flirting, which starred future Hollywood stars Nicole Kidman, Thandiwe Newton, and Naomi Watts alongside the returning Taylor.
This restoration is presented by the National Film and Sound Archive’s digital restoration program – NFSA Restores – reviving Australia’s cinema icons.
While there remains some debate about the first film directed by an Aboriginal man, it is accepted that these are the first documentary and fiction films helmed by Aboriginal women. Essie Coffey’s documentary takes the issue of the Indigenous people’s land rights as a starting point from which to explore issues of colonisation and the threats to Aboriginal culture. Tracey Moffat’s sole feature is an anthology of ghost stories she heard and feared as a child from her Aboriginal and Irish families. Featuring a child haunted by an American GI, invisible trains, and dancing spirits, Moffat infuses these stories with a surreal beauty in a film that blends their origins in a way that confronts and challenges racial stereotypes.
This restoration of My Survival as an Aboriginal is presented by the National Film and Sound Archive’s digital restoration program – NFSA Restores – reviving Australia’s cinema icons.
103 mins,
DOUBLE BILL
ESSIE COFFEY / TRACEY MOFFAT
JOHN DUIGAN
Bedevil
BAD BOY BUBBY
SUN 27TH (17.15)
Bubby (Nicholas Hope) is a 35-year-old man who has no worldly experience, having been confined to his house his entire life (à la Yorgos Lanthimos’s Dogtooth) by his alternately violent and incestuously tender mother, who has conditioned him to believe that not only is the air outside toxic, but that Jesus is waiting there to punish him should he leave. The sudden reappearance of his father leads to an escalation in Bubby’s mistreatment, leading to their murder and Bubby’s escape, and a series of adventures and misadventures in a world completely new to him. Using a variety of innovative techniques to present Bubby’s unique view of the world, Bad Boy Bubby is a truly singular, and ultimately even hopeful film.
Contains scenes of simulated animal cruelty that some viewers may find upsetting.
RADIANCE
TUES 29TH (18.30)
The incremental change in opportunities for women and Indigenous Australian filmmakers continues to this day, helped by the success of internationally acclaimed directors such as Warwick Thornton (Samson And Delilah , 2009). In this earlier example, Aboriginal director Rachel Perkins’s emotionally powerful debut, three Aboriginal sisters gather for the funeral of their mother. Mae (Trisha MortonThomas), the eldest, had cared for her while middle sister Cressy (Rachel Maza), a successful opera singer, and youngest child Nona (Deborah Mailman) made their own ways in life. With each having different fathers, their complicated relationships with their mother and each other are confronted, with old bitternesses and resentments finally receiving airings. Radiance features outstanding performances from its three leads, and superb cinematography from Thornton.
This restoration presented by the National Film and Sound Archive’s digital restoration program – NFSA Restores – reviving Australia’s cinema icons.
114 mins, Australia-Italy, 1993, Digital
83 mins, Australia, 1998, Digital
RACHEL PERKINS
ROLF DE HEER
ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME IFI &
AGAINST THE ODDS
Join us 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
TOP OF THE MORNING
This tourist-style film promoted sale of Irish Sweepstake Tickets at a time when direct advertising of the tickets had been banned in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Following a sequence on the Sweepstakes Draw, it visits a series of unusual locations such as the Old Spa and Pump Room in Lucan, a Feis in Navan and St Patrick’s Day celebrations at Castleknock College and College Green.
20 mins, Ireland, 1935, Digital, Black & White
PROGRAMME TWO
BOSSANOVA BLUES
In this graduation film from Kieron J Walsh (When Brendan Met Trudy, The Racer), three young rogues in Blackpool (an Irish ex-prisoner, his cousin, and a mermaid) devise a successful gambling scam before heading to the ferry with their spoils.
27 mins, Ireland, 1992, Digital
See pg. 21 for new documentary Beat the Lotto.
DANCER FROM THE DANCE
MON 7TH (18.30)
In collaboration with the Irish Modern Dance Theatre, we present a programme of new Irish dance films as part of the Dancer from the Dance Festival of Irish Choreography. Curated by John Scott, this programme gathers films by and about Irish and Irish identifying choreographers from a range of practices, ethnicities, and generations.
PROGRAMME INFO:
Navy Blue Faces. Dir. Oona Doherty, Luca Truffarelli. 9 mins, Germany
Rebellious Hope. Dir. Philip Connaughton, Luca Truffarelli, Mel Mercier. 27 mins, Ireland-France
Library Session. Dir. Mufutau Yusuf, Jean-Nicholas Schoeser. 8 mins, France
On Mending. Dir. Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern, Emilie Leriche. 15 mins, Italy
Part III. Dir. Alex O’Neill, James Grennan. 3 mins, Ireland
I’m Trying to Help. Dir. Zoë Ashe-Browne, Nicola Wills. 6 mins, Belgium
Programme Duration – 68 mins
Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
On Mendingphoto credit: Danijel Bogdanic
APOCALYPSE
NOW: FINAL CUT
BLUE SUN PALACE
CONSTANCE TSANG
SAT 12TH (14.00)
Despite one of the most chaotic productions in film history, as depicted in Eleanor Coppola’s sterling documentary Hearts Of Darkness (see pg. 21), Francis Ford Coppola’s monomaniacal excesses nevertheless gave audiences one of the towering achievements of American cinema. The film underwent numerous changes from its first screening in Cannes in 1979 as a work in progress, where it shared the Palme d’Or, to its theatrical release and the ‘Redux’ version released in 2001 before Coppola presented his preferred ‘Final Cut’ in 2019. A loose adaption of a Joseph Conrad novella, updated to the Vietnam War, it follows Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) on a mission into the jungle to assassinate the rogue Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando). A magnificent spectacle, filled with fine performances and superb dialogue, any opportunity to witness Apocalypse Now on the big screen is not to be missed.
183
SUN 13TH (15.15)
Shot in beautiful 35mm film, Chinese American writer-director Constance Tsang’s luminous debut feature is a delicate, atmospheric melodrama set in Flushing, Queens, New York City. Amy (Ke-Xi Wu) and Didi (Haipeng Xu), two Chinese migrants, work in a small parlour salon. Uprooted and far from their loved ones, their deep sisterhood helps them survive the temporal and emotional toll their work demands in a strange land. Didi has a secret lover, Cheung (Lee Kang-Sheng, actor of the great Tsai Ming-Liang), but when violence intrudes everything falls apart, and Amy finds herself alone, forced to consider her own destiny. Intimately filmed in her home neighbourhood, Constance Tsang brings poignancy to the state of contemporary exile, with airy, unobtrusive camera movement and long takes translating loneliness and grief.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Constance Tsang, hosted by film-maker Maríssa Aroy.
116
mins, USA, 2024, Digital, Subtitled Notes by Marie-Pierre Richard, EAFFI Discoveries
mins, USA, 1979, Digital Notes by Kevin Coyne
IRISH FOCUS
IOMÁNAÍOCHT HOLLYWOOD
(HOLLYWOOD HURLING)
MAC DARA Ó CURRAIDHÍN
TUES 15TH (18.30)
This film explores how Ireland, Irish people and Gaelic games have been depicted in Hollywood films and in Irish cinema. From the first homegrown feature - Knocknagow (1918) - through the efforts of the National Film Institute of Ireland, to the recent successes of films such as Lakelands (2022) and Róise & Frank (2022), Gaelic games have been a prominent aspect of Irish cinema. Based on the award-winning book by Seán Crosson (University of Galway), the film (part of a forthcoming TG4 series) includes contributions from academics Paul Rouse, Mike Cronin, Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh and Ciara Chambers; filmmakers Fergus Tighe and Bob Quinn; and from the late Dublin GAA legend Jimmy Gray (to whom the series is dedicated).
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Seán Crosson.
A new edition of Gaelic Games on Film will be available to purchase at a promotional price of €20.00.
52 mins, Ireland, 2025, Digital, Subtitled Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
THE ROARING TWENTIES
RAOUL WALSH
WED 16TH (18.20)
James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart star in one of the definitive gangster movies of the 1930s. Following their shared wartime experiences, three soldiers, Eddie (Cagney), George (Bogart), and Lloyd (Jeffrey Lynn), go their separate ways as a cab driver, a bootlegger, and a lawyer respectively. Drawn into the criminal world, Eddie strikes up a partnership with George, and hires Lloyd on retainer. However, there is no honour amongst these thieves, and as Eddie’s star falls while George is on the rise, the conflicts between the three become deadly. Raoul Walsh’s gritty, hardboiled film is a masterpiece of the genre. The film will be introduced by writer, director and comedian Peter McGann.
106 mins, USA, 1939, 4K Digital, Black & White Notes by
Kevin Coyne
BLACK BAG
BMX BANDITS
STEVEN SODERBERGH BRIAN TRENCHARD SMITH
FRI 25TH & WED 30TH (11.00)
With the spy genre enjoying renewed popularity, both on streaming services and in cinema, this tense drama from Steven Soderbergh is high on thrills and espionage motifs, with superb performance from Michael Fassbender as the intelligence boss trying to find the source of a leak within his organisation.
Suspect No. 1 is his operative wife, Kathryn, a cool and efficient Cate Blanchett, resentful of colleague Freddie, who was promoted over her. As the suspense builds through skilful editing and cinematography, razor sharp dialogue and London sets, we are kept guessing right up to the final moment. Pierce Brosnan also crops up, reminding us what a fine Bond he was.
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!
The screening on Wednesday 30th will be Open Captioned.
SUN 27TH (11.00)
Alongside IFI’s Australian film season, we’re showing this classic family caper, best known for being Nicole Kidman’s first feature role. From the early 1980s when the BMX was everyone’s bike of choice, Nicole plays Judy, eager teen girl hanging out with dirt bikers Goose and PJ. All out for laughs and fun, when they come upon a bunch of walkie talkies stolen by a heavy gang, they decide they’ll try and make some money by selling them. Of course, the heavies find out and the chase is on, in a thrilling pursuit across Sydney, ducking for cover in malls and hurtling along the seashore. Biking has never since looked so fun and thrilling, with some great stunts and Aussie humour thrown in for good measure. Nicole Kidman as super a feisty teen relishes the role, showing through her command of the camera and performance a hint of the superstar she was to become.
Tickets for IFI Family screenings are €7.00 (Individual), and €23.00 (Family of 4).
88 mins, Australia, 1983, Digital Notes by Alicia McGivern
93 mins, USA, 2025, Digital Notes by Alicia McGivern
MYSTERY MATINEE
MYSTERY MATINEE
SUN 27TH (13.00)
Join us for this month’s screening at 13.00 on Sunday, July 27th. 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
KOREA
CATHAL BLACK
WED 30TH (18.30)
Teenager Eamon (Andrew Scott) spends his last summer working with his father John Doyle (Donal Donnelly), an eel fisherman in the damp Irish midlands, before his leaving cert results arrive and he can leave home. Tensions over fishing rights arise with neighbour Ben Moran, an old civil war adversary, which are further compounded when Eamon falls in love with Moran’s daughter. With unemployment looming, Eamon thinks of emigration to the US despite the fact that Moran’s conscripted son was recently killed in Korea and returned home in a coffin.
Andrew Scott glows with youthful promise in his first film role alongside the ever-riveting Donal Donnelly.
This sumptuous restoration from original 35mm elements has been created by the IFI Irish Film Archive for IFI’s Digital Restoration Project funded by Screen Ireland/Fís Éireann.
This screening will be introduced by director Cathal Black.
87
mins, Ireland, 1994, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
GAZE 2025
TUE, JULY 29TH – MON, AUGUST 4TH
The GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival returns to the IFI over seven days including the August bank holiday weekend, presenting a packed lineup of new features, shorts programmes, and discussion events to celebrate queer love, life and legacy across a spectacle of cinema. Enjoy new narratives, daring documentaries, and short films celebrating our shared battles and triumphs.
Fifty is a big year for any queen, but it’s an especially thrilling one for the all-time cult classic queer film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. So start shivering with anticipation, because GAZE is paying homage with the Irish premiere of documentary Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky. Other festival highlights include gorgeous shorts programmes Irish Shorts, Japanese Love Stories, and Scánnain Aiteach; period-set drama Drive Back Home, starring Alan Cumming; 1998 hidden gem High Art, newly restored in 4K; British romance Departures; body modification documentary A Body to Live; and erotic urban noir Queerpanorama.
Expect a programme packed with one hundred films from all around the world, including striking and sexy international features, eclectic Irish and international shorts, and Irish, European, and World premieres throughout this newly extended seven-day festival. Tickets available from the GAZE box-office at www.GAZE.ie.
IFI FAMILY FESTIVAL 2025
FRI, AUGUST 15TH - SUN, AUGUST 17TH
Join us for our annual weekend of film fun for children and families!
This year’s Festival takes place Friday, August 15th to Sunday, August 17th and will include a host of premieres, animations, live actions, and short film programmes, as well as artist-led activities.
With films from Canada, France, Czech Republic, Ireland, Australia, and more, you and your film fans can enjoy the best Irish and international cinema for kids.
Stay tuned for more information!
Notes by Alicia McGivern
Hola Frida
IFI NEW RELEASES DOCS & CLASSICS
Barry Lyndon 50th Anniversary
BEAT THE LOTTO
ROSS WHITAKER
FROM FRI 4TH
When downtrodden 1980s Ireland inaugurated a National Lottery, the people began to dream. For Cork-based mathematician Stefan Klincewicz, the dream became an obsession. Spotting a flaw in the system, he recruited a ragtag team of chancers and masterminded an audacious plan to fix the draw and win the millions. The heist became public knowledge, and in a race against time, the National Lottery did everything they could to stymie the scheme, dividing the nation on a very public caper.
The colourful raconteurs in Ross Whitaker’s documentary infuse this complex tale of systembeating derring-do with wry humour and impressive mathematical moxie.
The opening night screening at 18.20 on Friday 4th will be followed by a Q&A with director Ross Whitaker.
See also pg. 12 for this month’s Archive at Lunchtime: Against The Odds.
HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKER’S APOCALYPSE 4K
FROM FRI 4TH
A revealing portrait of the making of Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam War epic, compiled from footage shot by his wife Eleanor during the legendarily troubled shoot, with contemporary interviews with members of the cast and crew, Hearts of Darkness offers an unflinching behind-the-scenes look at one of the most turbulent shoots in cinema history. Coppola faced a series of escalating problems: budget overruns, typhoons that destroyed sets, a heart attack suffered by lead actor Martin Sheen, and erratic behaviour from the mercurial Marlon Brando, whose late arrival and physical condition threw the film’s climactic sequence into chaos. Eleanor’s camera captures her husband’s growing anxiety and existential despair as the production dragged on interminably. Far more than a making-of film, Hearts of Darkness is a haunting meditation on ambition, obsession, and the psychological toll of creative pursuit.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 20.40 on Monday 7th, and 15.50 on Wednesday 9th.
96 mins, USA, 1991, 4K Digital Notes by David O’Mahony
80 mins, Ireland, 2025, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
FAX BAHR, GEORGE HICKENLOOPER, ELEANOR COPPOLA
HOT MILK THE SHROUDS
REBECCA LENKIEWICZ
FROM FRI 4TH
Sofia (Emma Mackey) has acted as caregiver to her wheelchair-bound mother Rose (Fiona Shaw) for most of her life; the cause of Rose’s chronic pain is unknown, and they have come to a private clinic in Spain, presided over by the enigmatic Dr Gomez, on a last-ditch attempt for treatment. Feeling trapped and frustrated by her mother’s demands and unpredictable moods, Sofia seeks comfort in a passionate tryst with Ingrid (Vicky Krieps), a local seamstress with emotional problems of her own. As Dr Gomez coaxes Rose off her medication and towards less conventional therapy, repressed memories of her life in Ireland threaten to resurface. The complex relationship between mother and daughter is the emotional core of Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s intriguing adaptation of Deborah Levy’s Booker Prize-nominated novel.
Are you an IFI Friend? Join us for our next IFI Cinema Club discussion after the screening at 18.30 on Tuesday 8th.
DAVID CRONENBERG
FROM FRI 4TH
The Shrouds, a typically remote, intellectually rich affair, where provocative ideas are presented sincerely, is notable for being David Cronenberg’s saddest film; steeped in grief, the loss of the director’s wife in 2017 is present throughout this singular work. Vincent Cassel, deliberately styled as a Cronenberg surrogate, plays Karsh, a tech entrepreneur still grieving the death of his wife Becca (Diane Kruger), who has invented a system allowing mourners to monitor the decomposition of their loved ones via headstone screens. But when his wife's plot is among several desecrated in an act of vandalism, Karsh starts to believe he is the focus of a conspiracy involving Becca’s twin sister, Terry (also Kruger), her ex-husband Maury (Guy Pearce), and Soo-Min (Sandrine Holt), the enigmatic wife of a dying Hungarian tycoon who wants to open one of Karsh's cemeteries in Budapest.
119 mins, Canada-France, 2024, Digital Notes by David O’Mahony
92 mins, UK, 2025, Digital Notes by David O’Mahony
ARMAND NINE QUEENS 25TH ANNIVERSARY
HALFDAN ULLMANN TØNDEL FABIÁN BIELINSKY
FROM FRI 11TH
Elisabeth (Renata Reinsve, in perhaps her finest performance yet) has been summoned to an emergency meeting after her 6-year-old son Armand is accused of inappropriate behaviour toward a classmate; at the school she is subjected to an intense and troubling investigation conducted by the principal, his more sympathetic, if inexperienced aide, and the alleged victim’s defensive parents. Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s exceptionally powerful film gradually morphs from claustrophobic chamber piece into something altogether more undefinable as the director locates formally daring mechanisms to explore the inner turmoil of his characters. Winner of the Caméra d’Or for Best First Feature at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, Armand is an auspicious debut feature from Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, as we might have expected from the grandson of cinematic royalty Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman.
118 mins, Norway-Netherlands-Germany-Sweden, 2024, Digital, Subtitled Notes by David O’Mahony
FROM FRI 11TH
Production of Fabián Bielinsky’s debut feature, receiving a welcome rerelease in a 4K digital restoration, came to life when his screenplay won a contest organised by a company who had previously passed on it - a suitably convoluted way for this brilliantly constructed heist movie to make its way to the big screen. Experienced con artist Marcos (Ricardo Darín, in the role that gave him his international break) rescues inexperienced scammer Juan (Gastón Pauls) from a difficult situation and suggests the two team up on a time-sensitive deal for which he needs a partner, involving the sale of a sheet of counterfeit rare stamps. As the deal grows more involved and the number of participants increases even to include Marcos’s sister Valeria (Leticia Brédice), true motivations and plans within plans are gradually revealed in this engrossing, entertaining, and constantly surprising thriller.
114 mins, Argentina, 2000, 4K Digital, Subtitled Notes by Kevin Coyne
(NUEVE REINAS)
IFI NEW RELEASES, DOCS & CLASSICS
BARRY LYNDON 50TH ANNIVERSARY
FRIENDSHIP
FROM FRI 18TH
Stanley Kubrick’s lavish period drama sees the rise and fall of a likeable 18th century Irish scoundrel, Barry Lyndon. In 1973-74, Kubrick spent nine months in Ireland shooting the film before making a hasty exit due to disruptions related to The Troubles, an ironic turn of events given the production’s theme of colonial conquest. The film, commercially unsuccessful upon its release but now deemed a masterpiece, features Kubrick’s trademark technical virtuosity and his mordant wit (evident in the satirical depiction of the British aristocracy and in the audacious casting of Ryan O’Neal as Lyndon and supermodel Marisa Berenson as his long-suffering wife).
The screening at 18.30 on Friday, 18th will be introduced by cast member Patrick Dawson (Seamus Feeney) in conversation with Derek O’Connor (RTÉ).
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 14.15 on Monday 21st, and 19.15 on Tuesday 22nd.
FROM FRI 18TH
Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson) is a socially awkward marketing executive in a strained marriage to Tami (Kate Mara); by turns pathetic, endearingly sweet, and a little creepy, Craig is very much of a piece with the characters on Robinson’s much-loved sketch show I Think You Should Leave. When Austin (Paul Rudd), a charismatic local weatherman, moves in next door, Craig latches onto him, desperate for connection. Their friendship begins innocently, but Craig’s admiration quickly turns into an unhealthy fixation. As Austin starts pulling away, Craig’s behaviour becomes erratic and intrusive, spiralling into boundary-breaking acts that threaten his job, family, and sense of self. A dark comedy that explores male loneliness and obsession through the unravelling of a white suburban man’s psyche, Friendship is a cringingly funny yet unsettling portrait of emotional dependency and anxiety.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 13.45 on Sunday 20th, and 18.30 on Wednesday 23rd.
100 mins, USA, 2024, Digital Note by David O’Mahony
ANDREW DEYOUNG
184 mins, UK-USA, 1975, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
STANLEY KUBRICK
DYING AMADEUS 4K HARVEST
ATHINA RACHEL TSANGARI
FROM FRI 18TH
The hardscrabble world of 17th century Scottish peasants is evocatively realised in Athina Rachel Tsangari’s highly original third feature. The story centres on Walter Thirsk (Caleb Landry Jones), a man caught between his ties to the local villagers and his loyalty to the landowner, Master Kent (Harry Melling). The community’s equilibrium is disrupted when three outsiders are scapegoated following a mysterious barn fire. Tensions escalate further with the arrival of Master Kent’s ambitious cousin, Edmund Jordan (Frank Dillane), who plans to convert the arable land into profitable sheep pastures, threatening the villagers’ traditional way of life. Exploring the impact of economic change on the community, Tsangari vividly creates a world steeped in ancient custom and superstition.
FROM FRI 25TH
A multi-layered, poignant, bleakly humorous, and wholly engrossing family saga, Matthias Glasner’s Dying is far more entertaining than one might expect from a three-hour film about death. Each member of the Lunies clan is consumed by crisis: aging matriarch Lissy is battling several illnesses, while her husband drifts into dementia. Their son Tom is composing an orchestral piece titled Dying and grappling with creative block. Meanwhile, daughter Ellen takes solace from a toxic relationship in booze and drugs. Glasner combines stark realism with philosophical reflection and humour, painting a deeply human portrait of people resisting, and slowly coming to terms with, the inevitable.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 13.00 on Monday 28th, and 19.45 on Tuesday 29th.
FROM FRI 25TH
A lavish, fictionalised account of the bitter rivalry between composers Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) and upstart prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) in 18th-century Vienna. The film unfolds as a dramatic confession where the aging Salieri, once a respected court composer, recounts his envious obsession with Mozart, a man whose divine musical talent is matched only by his vulgarity. As Mozarts fame grows and his personal life unravels, Salieri positions himself as both benefactor and saboteur, plotting the younger man's downfall while being consumed by admiration and resentment. The film, newly restored and presented on 4K, won eight Academy Awards including Best Actor for F. Murray Abraham’s devastating portrayal of a man whose appreciation of Mozart’s genius made a mockery of his own modest success.
180 mins, Germany, 2024, Digital, Subtitled Notes by David O’Mahony
160 mins, USA-France, 1984, 4K Digital Notes by David O’Mahony
131 mins, UK-Germany-USA-FranceGreece, 2024, Digital, Subtitled Notes by David O’Mahony
MATTHIAS GLASNER MILOS FORMAN
DIRECTOR SPOTLIGHT
AGNÈS VARDA: GLEANING TRUTHS
STREAMING NOW!
Although a key figure of the French New Wave, the late Agnès Varda’s importance and influence has been eclipsed somewhat by the legacies of her male contemporaries, Godard, Truffaut et al. It is only in recent years that her status as a pioneering figure is being reclaimed, to the point that in 2017, she was awarded an honorary Oscar for her contribution to cinema.
Varda’s eclectic body of work resists categorisation, though commonalities can be discerned; she exhibits a restless curiosity for people and places, a playful attitude towards her own eccentric persona, and compassion and respect for those living on the margins of society, recurring figures in her films.
COMPLICIT: THE FILMS OF MICHAEL HANEKE
STREAMING NOW!
Few contemporary filmmakers have interrogated modern life with the unflinching precision, moral clarity, and formal rigour of Michael Haneke. Known for his stark visual style, chilling precision, and provocative storytelling, the Austrian director holds a mirror to the darker corners of modern society.
His cinema resists traditional narrative satisfaction and instead implicates the audience in the moral dilemmas of his characters, often forcing us to question our complicity as spectators.
Whether you’re encountering Haneke’s work for the first time or revisiting it anew, expect to be unsettled. That’s precisely the point.
Notes by David O’Mahony
HANEKE
VARDA
The Beaches of Agnès
THIS JULY ON IFI@HOME
IFI DOC
NEW RELEASE
NEW RELEASE
NEW RELEASE
E.1027: EILEEN GRAY AND THE HOUSE BY THE SEA
BEATRICE MINGER & CHRISTOPH SCHAUB
STREAMING NOW!
A love triangle in the Parisian art scene of the 1930s is brought to life in this stylish docufiction about iconic Irish artist and architect Eileen Gray.
STREAMING NOW!
FRANÇOIS OZON
FROM MON 14TH
GOOD ONE FLOW WHEN AUTUMN FALLS
Cat is a solitary creature, but when his woodland home is devastated by a great flood, he is obliged to seek allies in the animal kingdom. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
A character-driven psychological drama from the ever-surprising and unpredictable François Ozon.
INDIA DONALDSON GINTS ZILBALODIS
FROM TUES 15TH
During a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam navigates the clash of egos between her father and his oldest friend.
