IFI Programme - March 2024

FESTIVALS

East Asia Film Festival Ireland

SEASON

The Cinema of Jean Eustache

IFI ARCHIVE PLAYER

The Guinness Adverts Project

MONSTER (KAIBUTSU )

KORE-EDA HIROKAZU

MARCH AT THE IFI

IFI NEW RELEASES,

DOCS

& CLASSICS

SHOWING UP

FROM FRI 1ST

YOUR FAT FRIEND FROM FRI 1ST

COPA 71 FROM FRI 8TH

DO NOT EXPECT TOO FROM FRI 8TH MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD

BANEL & ADAMA FROM FRI 15TH

MONSTER FROM FRI 15TH

MY FRIEND LANRE FROM FRI 15TH

BALTIMORE FROM FRI 22ND

ROBOT DREAMS FROM FRI 22ND

THE DELINQUENTS FROM FRI 22ND

OPUS: RYUICHI FROM FRI 29TH

SAKAMOTO

THE ORIGIN OF EVIL FROM FRI 29TH

CONTENTS IFI

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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The F-rating is a classification reserved for any film which is directed and/or written by a woman.

BOX OFFICE & PRICES

ADMISSION FEES*

IFI Members Discount Prices in Brackets.

MONDAY–THURSDAY

12.30pm–5pm €11.00 (€10.00) Conc. €8.40 (€7.90) 5pm–10pm €13.00 (€12.00) Conc. €10.40 (€9.90)

FRIDAY–SUNDAY + BANK HOLIDAYS

12.30pm–3pm €11.40 (€10.40) Conc. €8.80 (€8.30) 3pm–10pm €14.00 (€13.00) Conc. €11.40 (€10.90)

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. *regular IFI screenings, excluding some special events.

Open Captioned screening

Audio Described screenings available on selected titles, ask at Box Office for details

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.

SEASONS & EVENTS AT A GLANCE

SAT 30TH

EAST ASIA FILM FESTIVAL IRELAND

The 8th East Asia Film Festival Ireland 2024 (EAFFI) brings to audiences memories, collective stories, and personal journeys of identity and culture, with themes of understanding, tolerance, and hope through works by writers and directors across East Asian cinema.

Highlights include: Edward Yang season with four rarely screened works in 2K and 4K restorations, presented by Taiwanese producer Chuti Chang; and Japanese filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda who will take part in an In-Conversation event with Chuti Chang (Tuesday, March 5th at 6.30pm), and a Q&A session after the premiere of his new documentary, The Cats of Gokogu Shrine, our opening film.

Thank you to the Arts Council, the IFI, our sponsors and partners supporting EAFFI, and most importantly you!

Maria O'Brien, co-organiser, EAFFI; Marie-Pierre Richard, Programme Curator & Co-organiser, EAFFI. Programme info, details & bookings: www.eaffi.ie and www.ifi.ie

Only

THE CATS OF GOKOGU SHRINE

OBSERVATIONAL FILM #10 (GOKOGU NO NEKO)

KAZUHIRO SODA

THURS 7TH (18.00)

Gokogu, an ancient Shinto shrine in Ushimado near the Seto Inland Sea in Japan, known as Cat Shrine, is home to dozens of street cats. People visit to worship, to garden, or tend to the shrine, while others stop by on their way to fish. But mostly, it’s a haven for cat-lovers. Gokogu looks peaceful on the surface, but is the epicentre of a divide in the community.

Kazuhiro Soda’s ( Zero, EAFFI 2023) follow-up to Oyster Factory (2015) and Inland Sea (2018), also shot in Ushimado, sees him drawn in by the allure of the place and befriending the local street cats. The result is as beautiful as it is harsh, a simple yet complex portrayal, observing an aging community and its spiritual centre.

Followed by Q&A with Kazuhiro Soda hosted by Dr. Tony Tracy. In-Conversation Event: Kazuhiro Soda & Chuti Chang with Edwina Forkin, March 5th at 18.30. (info: eaffi.ie and ifi.ie)

119

ONLY THE RIVER FLOWS

MAN IN BLACK (HEI YI REN) & FÜR BETTINA

WEI SHUNJUN WANG BING

FRI 8TH (20.30)

Adapted from Yu Hua’s novel Mistakes by the River, this third feature from Chinese writer-director Wei Shunjun (Ripples of Life, EAFFI 2022) is set in the 1990s in the rural town of Banpo, Southern China. Ma Zhe (Zhu Yilong), chief of police (and father-to-be), investigates after the body of an elderly woman is found murdered by the river. An early arrest looks like case closed, but Ma Zhe is puzzled and continues the investigation. Shot on 16mm in foggy, rainy landscapes, this sophisticated, atmospheric thriller is a complex portrait of provincial community, taut social and psychological relationships, and the quiet and oppressive existence of the occupants, their pasts, all served up with a pitch-dark sense of humour.

The screening will be introduced by film critic John Maguire.

SAT 9TH (16.00)

86-year-old Wang Xilin, one of China’s leading modern classical composers and conductors, lives in exile in Germany having suffered persecution during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. This hour-long performance-painting-portrait of Wang Xilin by Chinese director Wang Bing, and shot by renowned French cinematographer Caroline Champetier, is an extraordinarily powerful and immersive film focusing on the body as an act of witnessing.

(60 mins, France-USA-UK, 2023, Digital, Subtitled)

Preceded by short film, Für Bettina

A silent-film love story told through a public sculpture in Berlin of the 19thCentury Romantic-era poets Bettina and Achim von Arnim.

(Dir. Adrian Duncan, 20 mins, Ireland, 2023, Digital, Silent)

This screening is organised in partnership with aemi, an organisation funded by the Arts Council to support and develop artist and experimental film culture in Ireland (www.aemi.ie).

SNOW LEOPARD

PEMA TSEDEN

SAT 9TH (18.10)

Snow Leopard, written and directed by late Tibetan writer/filmmaker Pema Tseden (1969–2023)

(Jinpa, EAFFI 2021), was completed just weeks before his sudden death last year. He leaves us a beautiful, magical tale told in two parts, a surreal venture in the distant past, and a realistic present-day account. In the village of Drigar on the Tibetan plateau, a snow leopard has jumped into herder Jinpa's sheep pen, killing nine rams. Jinpa insists the government provide financial compensation or he will kill the leopard, a protected species. This creates a storm in the community involving; Jinpa’s father arguing with Jinpa to release the snow leopard, Jinpa’s brother, a young monk known as ‘Snow Leopard Lama’, a local TV crew, government officials and the police! It's a story about unparalleled compassion, solicitude, and love told through the stunning immersive photography of cinematographer Matthias Delvaux.

Winner Grand Prix, Tokyo Film Festival 2023.

SOLIDS BY THE SEASHORE

PATIPARN BOONTARIG

SAT 9TH (20.40)

This tender, atmospheric debut from Thai director Patiparn Boontarig, set in a coastal town in southern Thailand, uniquely tackles climate change, tradition, identity, and LGBT love. Shati, a Muslim from a conservative family, works at the local art gallery where she meets Fon, an activist-turned-visual artist from Bangkok. Immediately attracted to each other, this opens deep internal conflict for Shati, whose traditional roots forbid same-sex relationships. Fon sees things differently: ‘If we impose limitations on our lives, they end up eroding our own selves.’ This is like the ‘solids’ – the poorly built seawalls intended for coastal defence, but ultimately responsible for further soil erosion with beaches filled with sand from elsewhere, the sands unable to combine. The screening will be introduced by film critic Tara Brady.

Winner of the LG OLED New Currents & NETPAC Awards, Busan International Film Festival 2023.

109 mins, China, 2023, Digital, Subtitled

Notes by Marie-Pierre Richard

93 mins, Thailand, 2023, Digital, Subtitled

Notes by Marie-Pierre Richard

ELEGIES

ANN HUI

SUN 10TH (17.45)

Celebrated Hong Kong New Wave auteur writerdirector-producer Ann Hui returns with a personal, evocative, joyful, and beautiful documentary portrait of contemporary poets from Hong Kong.

This is an ode to the city of Hong Kong in a state of transition, devoted to poets of the ‘old’ generation (born 1937–1952), through to the poets, of today. Filming conversations through personal encounters with Hong Kong’s most notable poets including Yam Gong, Wai Yuen, Deng Ah Lam, York Ma, Xi Xi, and Leung Ping Kwan, Hui reveals the topography of contemporary poetry, while giving us glimpses of inner life in Hong Kong. Subtle and graceful vignettes of everyday life unfold freely, bringing us poetic imagery and inspirational ideas.

The screening will be introduced by EAFFI programme curator Marie-Pierre Richard. We would like to thank the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Brussels for their support with this screening.

WALK UP

HONG SANGSOO

SUN 10TH (20.10)

Walk Up is the 28th feature from prolific South Korean favourite Hong Sangsoo. This is a delightful, humorous, existential drama, where time circles elliptically and the story unfolds up and down on the floors of a Seoul apartment building. Byungsoo, a well-known filmmaker, visits old friend Ms. Kim with his daughter Jeongsu, an aspiring interior designer. Ms. Kim is an interior designer and owner of a beautiful four-storey building that houses her office, a restaurant and cooking studio, and two apartments. After much talk and drinks, she offers to rent out an apartment to Byungsoo. Always witty and playful, Hong revisits themes close to his heart – love, friendship, art, career, cinema, family, and home renovations, all set around casual philosophical table chats and lots of wine and soju.

101 mins, Hong Kong, 2023, Digital, Subtitled

Notes by Marie-Pierre Richard

97 mins, South Korea, 2022, Digital, Subtitled

Notes by Marie-Pierre Richard

EDWARD YANG SEASON

We are honoured to present a season of rare screenings of four masterworks by auteur filmmaker, Edward Yang (1947–2007), one of the most iconic figures, alongside Hou Hsiao-Hsien, of the Taiwanese New Wave film movement of the early 1980s.

Revered as “the thinker of urban culture”, Yang’s films are fast-moving yet melancholic ensemble pieces grounded in a realist aesthetic. They are notable for their sprawling, unconventional narrative structures, their precise compositions, and a largely non-professional cast portraying urban living situations and experiences of modernity. Each screening will be introduced by film producer from Taiwan, Chuti Chang.

We would like to thank the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, the Taipei Representative Office in Ireland, Chuti Chang, and Janus Films and NG Yuk Lin for their invaluable support with this programme.

Edward Yang Season’s film notes taken from the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, Film Lincoln Centre and Janus Films.

A CONFUCIAN CONFUSION

THURS 7TH (20.30)

Art versus commerce, friendship versus status, independence versus conformity—values clash and collide in Yang’s study of an increasingly Westernised country heading into the twenty-first century without moral guideposts. A Confucian Confusion charts the tangled web of emotional and professional manipulations among a group of young urbanites - at its centre, Molly, the director of a floundering public-relations firm. Alienated by the childish fiancé who bankrolls her enterprise –and frustrated by the demands of an assistant, Qiqi, and her own fiancé, Ming – Molly lashes out at everyone in her path and threatens to dismantle the company altogether. Injecting comedic elements into his patented brand of earnest soul-searching, Yang finds humour as well as pathos in the desperate behaviour of a lost and lonely generation.

THAT DAY, ON THE BEACH

YI YI (A ONE AND A TWO...) A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY

FRI 8TH (17.00)

One of the greatest debuts of the 20th Century, That Day, on the Beach, the first feature for both Yang and cinematographer Christopher Doyle, stars Sylvia Chang and Terry Wu as old friends reuniting after thirteen years apart. “There’s a mystery,” noted David Bordwell in 2016, “but, as in L’Avventura, the disappearance sends out ripples that reveal social pressures and psychological states. There are flashbacks, both fragmentary and extended; there are flashbacks within flashbacks; there are multiple narrators, replays of key events, and floating voice-overs — all in the service of probing the ways in which patriarchal authority stunts young people’s lives”.

SAT 9TH (12.30)

Sublime magnum opus Yi Yi (A One and a Two . . .), winner of the Best Director Award at Cannes, and Yang’s final and most renowned film, follows a middle-class family in Taipei over the course of one year, beginning with a wedding and ending with a funeral. Whether chronicling middle-age father NJ’s tentative flirtations with an old flame, or precocious young son Yang-Yang’s attempts at capturing reality with his beloved camera, Yang deftly imbues every gorgeous frame with a compassionate clarity. Warm, sprawling, and dazzling, this intimate epic wanders contemporary Taipei, moving from one member of the Jian family to another and back again.

SUN 10TH (12.30)

Deeply personal epic A Brighter Summer Day immortalises the moment when teen pop culture went global, forging an effervescent but lasting bridge between East and West. Set in the early sixties in Taiwan and based on the true story of a crime that rocked the nation, a film of both sprawling scope and tender intimacy, this novelistic, patiently observed epic centres on the gradual, inexorable fall of a young teenager (Chen Chang, in his first role years before appearing in Happy Together and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) from innocence to juvenile delinquency, and is set against a simmering backdrop of restless youth, rock and roll, and political turmoil.

THE CINEMA OF JEAN EUSTACHE

A towering figure in world cinema, Jean Eustache’s legacy is built upon the formidable reputation of The Mother and the Whore, his debut film from 1973, a 219-minute, dialogue-heavy chronicle of a messy ménage à trois that venerable French film journal Cahiers du Cinéma named the best film of the 1970s. A difficult film to see theatrically, it has been lovingly remastered for this retrospective season, along with the remainder of his eclectic filmography, which contains just one more feature film, My Little Loves from 1974, along with several documentaries and shorts. Born in Pessac, near Bordeaux, in 1938, Eustache’s filmmaking style often involved an autobiographical approach. For example, several of his documentaries are set in his hometown and Numéro Zéro is a feature-length interview with his grandmother who raised him. Despite a relatively short career, he left a lasting impact upon French cinema. Unfortunately, Eustache faced personal struggles, and he tragically took his own life on November 3rd, 1981, at the age of 42.

Season notes by David O’Mahony

Jean Eustache: The Mother and the Whore

NUMÉRO ZÉRO

THE VIRGIN OF PESSAC (LA ROSIÈRE DE PESSAC)

THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE (LA MAMAN ET LA PUTAIN)

TUES 12TH (18.30)

Before paying homage to his grandmother Odette Robert in the autobiographical My Little Loves, Eustache made Numéro Zéro, a documentary portrait in which Robert answers questions about her difficult Bordeaux upbringing, contentious marriage, and traumatic wartime experiences. In excavating the painful details of Robert's life, Eustache discovers their universal resonance in the lives of so many others – their struggles, triumphs, mistakes, and learned lessons. Much of Eustache's later style can be found in Numéro Zéro, from the inimitable black-and-white photography and static framing to the emphasis on the major revelations of minor movements and gestures.

THURS 21ST (18.30)

As political and social tumult rocked France in May and June of 1968, Jean Eustache used his first documentary to focus on persistent tradition in the form of a centuriesold ceremony in his hometown of Pessac. Each year, Pessac’s civic leaders choose a young woman they consider an exemplar of moral virtue, with a day-long celebration commemorating the changing of the guard from the previous year’s “virgin” to the present one. Eustache observes the exacting selection process, the fostering of communal bonds, and a bold implication by Pessac’s presiding priest that the ritual upholds the same Christian values for which leftist students and workers were currently fighting.

SAT 23RD (12.30)

After the French New Wave, the sexual revolution, and May ’68 came The Mother and the Whore, the legendary, autobiographical magnum opus by Jean Eustache that captured a disillusioned generation navigating the post-idealism of the 1970s within the microcosm of a ménage à trois. The aimless, clueless, Parisian pseudo-intellectual Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Léaud) lives with his tempestuous older girlfriend, Marie (Bernadette Lafont), and begins a dalliance with the younger, sexually liberated Veronika (Françoise Lebrun, Eustache’s own former lover), leading to a volatile open relationship marked by everyday emotional violence and subtle but catastrophic shifts in power dynamics. Transmitting his own sex life to the screen with a startling immediacy, Eustache achieves an intimacy so deep it cuts.

MY LITTLE LOVES

(MES PETITES AMOUREUSES)

THE VIRGIN OF

PESSAC

‘79

(LA ROSIÈRE DE PESSAC ’79)

SUN 24TH (13.15)

Jean Eustache’s second and final narrative feature, My Little Loves, follows Daniel (Martin Loeb) as he navigates the bewildering world of early adolescence. Living with his grandmother (Jacqueline Dufranne) in a sleepy village outside of Bordeaux, Daniel enjoys a carefree existence with his similarly innocent peers. But when his mother (Ingrid Caven) arrives and relocates him to Narbonne, Daniel is prematurely thrust into adulthood. Taken out of school, he is forced to work for a surly mechanic and left to his own devices, spurring him to fall in with an older crowd that is far more experienced in dating and sex. Featuring a wonderfully nuanced performance by Loeb, My Little Loves is a coming-of-age gem.

THURS 28TH (18.30)

Eleven years after the first La Rosière de Pessac, Jean Eustache filmed another documentary about his hometown’s annual coronation of a young woman of upstanding moral integrity. The differences between the ritual in 1968 and in 1979 are subtle yet telling: the selection process is slightly more fraught in ‘79 than in ‘68, while local leaders are more concerned with the current economic depression than wide-scale social upheaval. The ceremony also provides a stage on which progressive changes are made official, with a local order, the Fellows of Pleasant Pessac, inducting their first female member. Finally, this time around Eustache employs colour photography to capture the ceremony, an appropriate choice given its verdant outdoor spring setting.

NARRATIVE SHORTS

SAT 30TH (15.30)

ROBINSON’S PLACE (DU CÔTÉ DE ROBINSON)

40 mins, France, 1963, Digital, Black & White, Subtitled

Aristide Demonico and Daniel Bart play Parisian friends who try to pick up the same young woman. Their competitive barbs and repeated failures in flirtation lead them to band together for petty revenge against their would-be conquest. In less than forty minutes, Eustache delineates the parameters of his moral universe, in which characters fool themselves into believing that life is completely defined by romantic prowess.

SANTA CLAUS HAS BLUE EYES (LE PERE NOËL A LES YEUX BLUES)

48 mins, France, 1966, Digital, Black & White, Subtitled

Daniel (French New Wave icon Jean-Pierre Leaud) believes a new job playing Santa will provide him with opportunities to meet girls, but his own desperation continually stands in the way of success. By turns comic and melancholy, Le Père Noël... marks an important stepping stone among the director’s unsentimental explorations of awkward young men who avoid self-reflection while pursuing the opposite sex.

EMPLOYMENT OFFER (OFFRE D’EMPLOI)

21 mins, France, 1982, Digital, Black & White, Subtitled

Eustache’s final film is a sharp satire of man’s dehumanisation at the hands of psychology. An unemployed sales director seeks a job and performs well in his interview. Later, a handwriting analyst determines the suitability of each candidate by reading into their cover letters various subconscious weaknesses and faults. The film explores modes of communication, with an emphasis on the blind spots in human understanding and interrelationships.

EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS

SUN 31ST (15.30)

A DIRTY STORY (UNE SALE HISTOIRE)

50 mins, France, 1977, Digital, Black & White, Subtitled

A fascinating investigation into the relationship between fiction and documentary, verbal and visual storytelling, and personal and universal desires. In the first of the film’s two sections, Michael Lonsdale plays the role of a man explaining to a group his past voyeuristic obsessions, while the second section shows an unscripted recording of Jean-Noël Picq, the man Lonsdale has played, recounting the same real-life tale.

ALIX’S PICTURES (LES PHOTOS D'ALIX)

15 mins, France, 1980, Digital, Black & White, Subtitled

A young woman (Alix Clio-Roubaud) describes to a young man (Boris Eustache, the director's son) the stories, techniques, and meanings behind her artworks. But her explanations don't seem to match what we see. Is this because language can never accurately account for the visual? Because the viewer is being invited to look beyond the surface? Because Eustache is perpetrating some sort of absurdist practical joke?

HIERONYMOUS BOSCH’S GARDEN OF DELIGHTS

34 mins, France, 1981, Digital, Black & White, Subtitled

French television series Les Enthousiastes asked art aficionados to offer their thoughts about selected paintings. For Eustache’s episode, Jean-Noël Picq (of Une Sale Histoire) chose Hieronymus Bosch’s apocalyptic The Garden of Earthly Delights. Picq points out several notable qualities, including its near absence of perspective and its objective depiction of sadomasochistic pleasure.

GAEILGE ABÚ!

Join us for free films from the IFI Irish Film Archive. Simply collect tickets at the IFI Box Office, or book your ticket on our website for a small fee!

In celebration of Seachtain na Gaeilge.

PROGRAMME ONE

GNÓ

GACH ÉINNE

In this dramatised film made for the Department of Health, a health inspector visits a grubby grocery shop and café on Moore Street, run by a slovenly shopkeeper (Nora O’Mahony, later Wanderly Wagon’s Godmother).

Tony Inglis, 10 mins, Ireland, 1951, Black & White, Irish

SAOL SONA

Made for the National Savings Committee, the film traces the life of a young couple who save up, get married, have children, and face middle age with security.

George Morrison, 10 mins, Ireland, 1967, Irish

PROGRAMME TWO

POBAL

Pobal is Louis Marcus’s breathtaking panorama of Irish life in 1970. The spirit and character of the Irish people are observed through the lens of Bob Monks in a dynamic series of rural and urban portraits, accompanied by the rousing music of Seán Ó Riada.

Louis Marcus, 25 mins, 1970, Irish and English

OPPENHEIMER

70MM

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN

SAT 2ND (15.30) & SUN 3RD (15.30)

Exclusively showing at IFI on the director’s preferred 70mm format, Oppenheimer stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the ‘father of the atomic bomb’, whose achievements were mired in guilt at the devastation his work unleashed, and how the continued development of even more powerful weapons of mass destruction fundamentally destabilised world peace forevermore.

Based on Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin’s Pulitzer Prize winning biography, Nolan weaves a dual narrative, exploring Oppenheimer’s era-defining role as director of the Manhattan Project in New Mexico, where he led a crack team of scientists to develop an atomic bomb before Germany did so first, while looking ahead to the Cold War period, when Oppenheimer’s ambiguous pre-war Communist associations led him to be harassed, interrogated, and ultimately humiliated in a series of hearings led by the relentlessly red-baiting Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.).

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn

180 mins, UK-USA, 2023, 70mm

Notes by David O'Mahony

THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT

STEPHAN ELLIOTT

MON 4TH (18.15 & 20.50)

Priscilla’s stature has grown over the years since its original release – and unexpected success – to see it become a stage musical and a firm cult favourite with audiences all over the world who are charmed by its humour, tenderness, and extravagant, Oscarwinning costumes. Drag queens Mitzi (Hugo Weaving) and Felicia (Guy Pearce) are accompanied across the Australian Outback by transgender woman Bernadette (Terence Stamp) as they make their way to a resort for a professional engagement. On their journey, they encounter a variety of characters both friendly and hostile, including Bob (Bill Hunter), who grows close to Bernadette in this endearing and touching modern classic.

Hugo Weaving will participate in a Q&A after the 18.15 screening and will later introduce the 20.50 screening. Presented in association with the Gate Theatre.

Hugo Weaving stars in the Irish Premiere of The President by Thomas Bernhard at the Gate Theatre until Sunday, March 24th. Tickets available from www.gatetheatre.ie

IFI CAREERS IN SCREEN

WEDS 6TH (9.30)

Now in its seventh year, IFI Careers in Screen is a day-long event for young people aged 15-18. With a mix of talks, Q&As, and presentations, it’s a chance for anyone interested in a future in Ireland’s screen industries to find out more and to hear from professionals across the sector.

Tickets for this event will be €5. Students are encouraged to attend independently. Full line-up of guests and events to follow.

I MUST AWAY CITY OF GOD

FERNANDO MEIRELLES

THURS 14TH (18.00)

Re-released in a new 4K digital restoration, Fernando Meirelles’s Oscar-nominated City Of God is a frenetic, intoxicating crime thriller that follows the diverging paths of two young men growing up in a favela where living outside the law is the norm. Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues), the more timid of the two, tries to keep his head down and avoid involvement, focusing instead on achieving his dream of becoming a newspaper photographer. Meanwhile, his friend Zé has worked his way up through the criminal ranks, and, largely thanks to his utter ruthlessness and unhesitating use of extreme violence, is now the head of his own drug empire. However, the uneasy peace that exists under Zé’s control of the local trade is broken as a result of his own actions, violence arising from his arrogant complacency, leading to an explosive gang war.

DENNIS HARVEY

WED 20TH (18.10)

Dennis left Ireland during the financial crisis to find work abroad. Hashem, a politician, fled Bangladesh for Spain when a change in government triggered threats to his life. Alicia left Peru for Chile, and then Chile for Spain, after falling into debt selling goods on the streets. By age 18, Ali had fled Afghanistan, Iran, and Sweden, finally reaching France, where he hoped to secure asylum. Mary, Dennis’s grandmother, stayed in Ireland for most of her life, living just miles from where she was born.

Narrated through a series of letters to his grandmother, director Dennis Harvey disentangles roots, land, and identity, and explores the unequal distribution of rights in this age of migration.

( 75 mins, Ireland-Sweden-Chile, 2023, Digital, Subtitled)

Also screening:

The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp

Three men seeking sanctuary in Ireland meet a hostile asylum policy and a militant far-right.

(20 mins, Ireland, 2024, Digital)

Followed by Q&A with Dennis Harvey.

130 mins, Brazil-France-Germany, 2002, Digital, Subtitled

Notes by Kevin Coyne

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn

WHITE PLASTIC SKY (MŰANYAG ÉGBOLT)

TIBOR BÁNÓCZKI AND SAROLTA SZABÓ

SUN 24TH (15.40)

Welcome to IFI Encounters, a new recurring programming strand that aims to highlight films from the international festival circuit that otherwise might go unseen by IFI audiences. The films will always be recent, unconventional, and (we think) exceptional.

The year is 2123. Faced with diminishing resources, the human race can only survive through a trade-off: at the age of fifty, every citizen is gradually turned into a tree. When Stefan discovers that his beloved wife Nora has voluntarily signed up for donating her own body before her time, he sets out on a journey to save her at all costs.

Animating duo Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó created their dystopian epic using rotoscoping techniques, and developed the screenplay with geologists, botanists, and meteorologists. The result is a visually breath-taking, and deeply moving eco-fantasy.

MYSTERY MATINEE

SUN 24TH (13.00)

Join us for this month’s screening at 13.00 on Sunday, March 24th. 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 €6.20.

A full list of previous screenings is available from www.ifi.ie/mystery-matinee-archive.

MYSTERY

111 mins, Hungary-Slovakia, 2023, Digital, Subtitled Notes by David O’Mahony

FILMS FROM PALESTINE OPEN ASYLUM

COLM VILLA

TUES 26TH (18.30)

The debut feature of Derry filmmaker Colm Villa, Open Asylum is set against the background of late ‘70s/early ‘80s Northern Ireland and portrays the final days in the life of 24-year-old metal worker Tom Bradley, a man frustrated by circumstance.

Filmed twelve months before the 1981 hunger strikes, what was initially to be a short story about middle-class anxiety ends up a political freeze-frame of its times. Shot on Super 8mm on a micro-budget, the action was filmed with improvised performances inside the world of the story in Derry, and post-produced in the United States. Though well received upon its release, the film was unscreened for almost 40 years, until in 2022 it was digitally restored by Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive with a new jazz-infused score by Score Draw Music. The film won Best Feature at the Brazil International Film Festival 2023.

Followed by a Q&A with Colm Villa.

74 mins, Northern Ireland, 1982, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn

CURATED BY SHASHA MOVIES

WEDS 27TH (18.30)

aemi is delighted to present this programme of artist Films From Palestine, curated for this year’s edition of London Short Film Festival by Shasha Movies, an independent streaming service for South-West Asian and North African (SWANA) cinema founded by Róisín Tapponi, an Assyrian Iraqi and Irish film programmer, writer, and PhD scholar. Each film in this programme echoes the heart of a landscape steeped in history, struggle, and hope. The artists weave together poignant narratives and oral histories, capturing the essence of a people's unwavering spirit. The diversity of the films are a testament to the plurality of experiences and image-making in Palestine, speaking to a universal language of human resilience.

PROGRAMME LISTING

The Way To Palestine. Dir. Layaly Bader, 6 mins, 1985

No Exit. Dir. Mohanad Yaqubi, 11 mins, 2014

Trouble In Paradise. Dir. Mona Benyamin, 8 mins, 2018

Electrical Gaza. Dir. Rosalind Nashashibi, 18 mins, 2015

Home Movies Gaza. Dir. Basma Alsharif, 24 mins, 2013

Total running time: 66 mins

aemi is an Arts Council-funded organisation dedicated to the support and development of artist film in Ireland. For more details visit www.aemi.ie

THE

THE OLD OAK

KEN LOACH

WED 27TH & FRI 29TH (11.00)

The impact of housing Syrian refugees in a disenfranchised north England town is deftly depicted by veteran filmmaker Ken Loach and his long-term collaborator Paul Laverty. Such is the level of economic neglect that when a coachload of Syrians arrive, several locals are vocal in their objection. World-weary publican, TJ objects to the dissenters gathering in his pub and instead sees a way for the community to demonstrate a positive response. Although offering no answers, the film, as with Jimmy’s Hall, shows how local spaces can be constructively utilised to bring together disparate views in the search for a way forward. The screening on Wednesday 27th will be open captioned.

AMERICAN HONEY

ANDREA ARNOLD

TUES 19TH (19.50)

Andrea Arnold’s first foray into American culture is this episodic road movie, set against some unexpectedly stunning landscapes, following the trip of a subscription magazine sales crew, into which then newcomer Sasha Lane jumps to escape a broken home. Shot by Robbie Ryan, the film features some of Arnold’s recurrent themes and naturalistic settings, centred as with Fish Tank on the sexual awakening of the central character. Aisha Bolaji of the Galpal Collective will present American Honey for IFI Bigger Picture.

See also Directed by Her, Galpal Collective’s short film event, taking place on Monday, March 11th –further details available on our website!

163 mins, UK-USA, 2016, Digital Notes by Alicia McGivern

113 mins, UK-Belgium-France, 2023, Digital Notes by Alicia McGivern

IFI EVENING COURSE

AN INTRODUCTION TO SCREENWRITING

COURSE SESSIONS

MONDAYS, APRIL 8TH - MAY 20TH (EXCLUDES MAY BANK HOLIDAY)

The IFI Evening Course returns this Spring with a six-week introduction to screenwriting, led by renowned script and story consultants Mary Kate and Rebecca O’Flanagan.

The tutors will work with course participants and budding screenwriters on how to think visually, write economically, and convey character by focusing on key moments in their stories.

This is suitable for all levels of experience in screenwriting.  Participants will not complete a full screenplay in this period of time, but instead

IFI CAFÉ BAR

Bookings

COURSE PRICE: €175/€160*

investigate plot, characters and themes through the writing of key scenes.

The six-week course includes an opening night film with a screening of the Coen Brothers’s True Grit , and participants will join the tutors for a post-screening discussion on the Coens’s screenwriting craft.

Places on the course are strictly limited. Course fee includes the April 8th screening and tea/coffee each evening.

*(IFI MEMBERS OR CONCESSIONS)

NEW SPRING MENU Roll-out mid-March

FRESH NEW PASTRIES Range from The Blackpitts Bakery

LARGE GROUPS

CATERED FOR email cafebar@irishfilm.ie

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GREEN GUINNESS for St Patrick's Day

SHOWING UP

KELLY REICHARDT

FROM FRI 1ST

A sculptor preparing to open a show must balance her creative life with the ongoing dramas of family and friends in Kelly Reichardt’s gentle, acutely observed portrait of the daily stresses and strains of artistic endeavour. Michelle Williams, in her fourth collaboration with the director, plays Lizzy, a Portland sculptor whose exhibition opens in a week’s time; anxious and irritable, Lizzy is hypersensitive to the minor nuisances that pull focus from her work, such as Jo (Hong Chau), a rival artist who has rented an apartment to Lizzy, and who repeatedly ignores her pleas to fix the plumbing. Add in divorced parents at loggerheads, a mentally ill brother, and a wounded pigeon, and it’s little wonder that Lizzie is in a state of emotional implosion. Showing Up is another of Reichardt’s perfectly formed miniatures, an entirely engrossing and satisfying exercise in understatement.

YOUR FAT FRIEND

JEANIE FINLAY

FROM FRI 1ST

Aubrey Gordon writes anonymously with candour and humour as ‘Your Fat Friend’ about what it means to be a very fat woman in the world. Her searingly honest writing debunks the lies peddled by the diet and wellness industry and examines how bias held by healthcare providers might be the biggest threat to fat people’s heath. She strives to bring about a paradigm shift in the way that we treat fat people and the fat on our own bodies. Her writing has brought her to an international audience, and led to threats to her life. Over a six-year period, Jeanie Finlay follows Aubrey from anonymous blogger to best-selling author and co-host of the Maintenance Phase podcast. Your Fat Friend is a film about fatness, family, the complexities of making changes, and the deep, messy feelings we hold about our bodies.

There will be Open Captioned screenings on Sunday 3rd at 18.30 and Tuesday 5th at 16.10.

COPA 71

JAMES ERSKINE & RACHEL RAMSAY

FROM FRI 8TH

It is August 1971. Football teams from England, Argentina, Mexico, France, Denmark, and Italy are gathering at Mexico City’s sun-drenched Azteca Stadium. The scale of the tournament is monumental: lavish sponsorship, extensive TV coverage, merchandise on every street corner, and crowds of over 100,000 hollering fans turn this historic stadium into ‘a cauldron of noise and heat’ match after match. Fawning media treat the players like rock stars. The atmosphere is reminiscent of the greatest moments in international footballing history. But this is a tournament unlike anything that’s happened before. The players on the pitch are all women. And it’s likely you’ve never even heard of it. This is Copa 71, the unofficial Women’s World Cup. Dismissed by both FIFA and domestic football associations around the world, this event has been entirely written out of history. Until now. There will be Open Captioned screenings on Saturday 9th at 14.30 and Thursday 14th at 18.30.

DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD

RADU JUDE

FROM FRI 8TH

Radu Jude’s latest unclassifiable provocation comprises a frantic day in the life of Angela Raducanu (Ilinca Manolache), a production assistant traversing the city of Bucharest, interviewing potential candidates to appear in a workplace safety video, commissioned by an Austrian company for whom Doris (Nina Hoss), a descendant of Goethe, is head of marketing. Meanwhile Angela hones her alarmingly offensive alter ego on social media, Bobita, a grotesquely exaggerated misogynistic caricature, and self-proclaimed friend of media personality Andrew Tate, who is currently facing numerous charges in Romania. She meets Ovidiu (Ovidiu Pîrșan), a wheelchair-bound worker, who gets the part in the video, but when he reveals on camera that his disability is due to the company’s negligence, his revelation ignites a scandal, which forces him to reinvent his story to suit the company’s narrative.

BANEL & ADAMA

RAMATA-TOULAYE SY

FROM FRI 15TH

Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. The young couple live in a remote village in northern Senegal and for them, nothing else in the world exists. However, their perfect everlasting love seems on a collision course with their family’s traditions. Adama is pressured to take the position of village chief, but Banel and Adama have different plans - that is, until something in the air shifts. A drought strikes and the cattle begin to die, changing everything. Award-winning filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s breath taking and lyrical debut feature follows the fated lovers in their quest to carve a life for themselves beyond the expectations of others. The film premiered in Competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, making Sy only the second Black woman in the history of the festival to do so.

There will be Open Captioned screenings on Friday 15th at 15.00 and Tuesday 19th at 18.20.

MONSTER (KAIBUTSU)

KORE-EDA HIROKAZU

FROM FRI 15TH

All is not what it seems in Kore-eda’s powerful tale of classroom bullying, and the ensuing moral and ethical dilemmas, scored by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto (see pg.26). Minato (Soya Kurokawa), an intense, solitary 10-year-old boy, is being raised by single mother Saori (Sakura Ando), who suspects that he is being bullied by one of his teachers, but her attempts to investigate the matter are met by a wall of obfuscation by the steely-eyed principal, Makiko (Yuko Tanaka), who is herself grieving the death of a grandchild. The cover-up at the school appears to involve Yori (Hinata Hiiragi), Minato’s classmate, a dreamer who often comes to class covered in bruises. Working from someone else’s script for the first time since Maborosi, his debut film, Kore-eda adopts a Rashomon-like approach, replaying scenes from a variety of perspectives, adding new layers of meaning and resonance. There will be Open Captioned screenings on Wednesday 20th at 18.00 and Thursday 21st at 13.00.

BALTIMORE MY FRIEND LANRE

LEO REGAN

FROM FRI 15TH

Irish filmmaker Leo Regan draws on decades of footage to portray the complex life of his friend, photographer Lanre Fehintola. Their friendship began as photography students in London in the early ‘90s. In 1998 Leo directed and Lanre featured in Don’t Get High On Your Own Supply when Lanre, working on a book about drug addicts in his hometown of Bradford, had himself become hooked on heroin. Cold Turkey (2001) documented Lanre’s attempt to break his addiction. My Friend Lanre presents an intensely intimate portrait of his friend Lanre during his final months and weeks, as he faces a cancer diagnosis and his ultimate adventure, his own death.

Described by Louis Theroux as “intimate, raw, beautiful”, this funny, devastating, and bravely personal film is a testament to deep friendship and to one person’s incredible life and work.

The opening night screening on Friday 15th at 18:30 is followed by a Q&A with Leo Regan hosted by Tom Burke (DCU). This event is supported by DCU’s MA in Documentary Practice. Open Captioned screenings on Saturday 16th at 14.30 and Monday 18th at 19.00.

CHRISTINE MOLLOY & JOE LAWLOR

FROM FRI 22ND

Born into a life of wealth and privilege, English debutante Rose Dugdale defies her family’s expectations for a good marriage and goes instead to Oxford, where the seeds of her political radicalisation are sown. Amongst the political turmoil of the 1970s, her sympathy towards the IRA’s conflict culminates in her leading an armed and violent raid on Russborough House on April 26th, 1974 in which nineteen masterpieces were stolen. Baltimore is based on the real events surrounding the raid, and the days following when Rose is in hiding in a remote cottage. Molloy and Lawlor reveal the ferocity and complexity of Rose Dugdale in a film that is masterful in its construction – with deft criss-crossing of timelines, an ominous, unsettling score, and a tightly-knit cast led by a mesmerising Imogen Poots.

The opening night screening on Friday 22nd will be followed by a Q&A with Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor.

There will be Open Captioned screening on Saturday 23rd at 15.10 and Monday 25th at 20.45.

85 mins, UK, 2023, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn

98 mins, Ireland-UK, 2024, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn

ROBOT DREAMS THE DELINQUENTS

PABLO BERGER RODRIGO MORENO

FROM FRI 22ND

SELECT FAMILY SCREENINGS: SUN 24TH, TUES 26TH (11.00) & THURS 28TH (13.00)

This Oscar-nominated, dialogue-free feature animation comes from the director of the riveting Blancanieves. For this tender animation, Berger turns to 1980s New York and the friendship between a lonely dog and a robot. The city is without humans but busy with animals such as monkeys, pigs, and penguins, whose anthropomorphic qualities allow them to lead active, adventurous lives. When Dog and Robot spend a day at the beach, a combination of sight gags and their visual responses make for a fun day out, till Robot gets waterlogged and Dog has to return home alone. Their friendship continues through dreams as they wait out the winter, aiming to reunite again. Adapted from Sara Varon’s graphic novel, and a tribute to New York, an edgy place of burger bars and roller skating in the Reagan era. Avoiding any bigger AI questions, the film explores themes of loneliness and relationships, and the part played by memory in keeping them alive.

There will be Open Captioned screenings on Sunday 24th at 16.20 and Thursday 28th at 18.15.

FROM FRI 22ND

Moran (Daniel Elias), a disaffected Buenos Aires bank employee, steals several hundred thousand dollars and blackmails his colleague Ramon (Esteban Bigliardi) into hiding the money until he has served his prison sentence - no more than three and a half years, he anticipates - after which time they will split it, never having to work again. From this intriguing premise, Argentinian writer-director Rodrigo Moreno’s highly original and effortlessly engaging film proceeds to upend the conventions of the crime drama, charting a wayward and eccentric path, mapping the characters' intertwined narratives as they separately become romantically involved with a pair of sisters, Norma (Margarita Molfino) and Morna (Cecilia Rainero). Morano’s digressive, elliptical approach allows him to expand the story in surprising and satisfying ways, more than justifying the generous running time.  There will be Open Captioned screenings on Friday 22nd at 15.40 and Wednesday 27th at 19.40.

102

180

OPUS: RYUICHI SAKAMOTO

NEO SORA

FROM FRI 29TH

On March 28th, 2023, legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away after his struggle against cancer. In the years leading up to his death, Sakamoto could no longer perform live. Single concerts, not to mention sprawling global tours, were too taxing. Despite this, in late 2022, Sakamoto mustered all of his energy to leave the world with one final performance: a concert film, featuring just him and his piano. Curated by Sakamoto himself and presented in his chosen order, the twenty pieces performed in the film wordlessly narrate his life through his music. The selection spans his entire career, from his popstar Yellow Magic Orchestra period, to his magnificent Bertolucci film scores, to music from his meditative final album, 12. Intimately filmed in a space he knew well, surrounded by his most trusted collaborators, Sakamoto bares his soul through his music, knowing this may be the last time that he can present his art.

There will be a preview screening of the film on Thursday 28th at 20:30 to mark the anniversary of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s passing.

THE ORIGIN OF EVIL

SÉBASTIEN MARNIER

FROM FRI 29TH

The spectre of Patricia Highsmith looms large over Sébastien Marnier’s ingeniously plotted mystery, a tale of deception, cross, and double cross set against the fading grandeur of a sprawling family mansion, boasting a central character every bit as slippery and adept at reinvention as Highsmith’s Tom Ripley. The great Laure Calamy plays Stéphane, a woman in her forties who lives in financial precarity; she works at a fish canning factory while her lover serves out a prison sentence. One night, Stephané impulsively contacts her estranged and extravagantly wealthy father, Serge (Jacques Weber); posing as an entrepreneur, she attempts to ingratiate herself with Serge’s wife, Louise (Dominique Blanc), who is immediately suspicious of this interloper. The Origin of Evil is a delicious skewering of the decadent excesses of the aristocracy and the climbers who aspire to be among them.

103

123 mins, France-Canada, 2022, Digital, Subtitled Notes by David O’Mahony

STREAMING THIS MARCH ON IFI DIGITAL PLATFORMS

GAZE ONLINE

STREAMING FROM TUES 5TH

In August 2023, GAZE International LGBTQIA+ Film Festival celebrated their 31st edition, and the programme included films that celebrate gay sexuality in many guises.

We’re delighted to present a selection of films from the 2023 festival online on IFI@Home for GAZE Online, including Diego Hoefel’s gently powerful character study meets road movie, The Reservoir; Horacio Alcalá’s magical realist feature Finlandia; and the ever-exciting Irish Shorts Programme.

THE GUINNESS ADVERTS PROJECT

FREE-TO-VIEW WORLDWIDE ON WWW.IFIARCHIVEPLAYER.IE

The Guinness Archive has partnered with the IFI Irish Film Archive to catalogue, digitise, and preserve a collection of 35mm advertisements made in the 1950s, ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, making it the largest publicly available collection of brand advertising in Ireland and the UK. Inspired by the success of the Irish Adverts Project in 2016, the project is supported by a grant from Coimisiún na Meán’s Archiving Funding Scheme. Created to advertise Guinness to Irish and UK television audiences, the advertisement collection features a wealth of talent both behind and in front of the camera, with directors including Alan Parker, Tony and Ridley Scott, music from artists Elkie Brooks, Clannad, and the Chieftains, and a host of well-known faces such as Pete Postlethwaite, Bill Nighy, Robert Lindsay, and Jon Pertwee. In addition to their ability to evoke nostalgia, this collection of commercials captures moments in cultural and social history spanning a 50-year period that offers a fascinating insight into changing representations of Irishness both at home and overseas, evolving gender roles and the ever-changing role of the pub in Irish society.

IFI

The Gate Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company present

THE PRESIDENT

by Thomas Bernhard

Translated by Gitta Honegger

Directed by Tom Creed

Opens

8th February

Previews from 2nd February

Tickets from €15 gatetheatre.ie