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POINTS
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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
TUES 2ND
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IFI SEASONS PRESENTS
MARGO HARKIN: RADICAL WITNESS
Margo Harkin is one of Ireland’s most versatile and respected filmmakers –having directed and produced fiction and documentary films for over forty years. Her work includes an invaluable chronicle of Northern Ireland’s recent political history. After graduating in Fine Art from the Ulster College of Art and Design in 1974, Harkin worked as an art teacher and community worker in socially deprived areas of Derry. She joined Field Day Theatre Company in 1980 as an Assistant Stage Manager on Brian Friel’s Translations, before going on to work as a stage designer for the company.
In 1984, Harkin co-founded Derry Film & Video Workshop with Anne Crilly and Trisha Ziff delivering critical perspectives that ran counter to the censored narratives then broadcast by British and Irish television. The signal works of this period were Mother Ireland (1988), Anne Crilly’s controversial documentary about feminism and Irish republicanism, and Harkin’s own Hush-A-Bye Baby (1990), a feature drama about teenage pregnancy following the 1983 abortion referendum in Ireland.
Harkin established Besom Productions in 1992 making educational films for Channel 4 but her reputation as an astute, local documentarian of injustices was soon forged through a series of highly regarded television documentaries. Her cinema films, the surf documentary Waveriders (2003), by Joel Conroy (which she produced), and Stolen (2023), about the plight of unmarried mothers in Ireland in the 20th century, provided thoroughly researched, compelling accounts of their subjects.
Margo Harkin is a member of Aosdána. Her work has won countless awards and is widely taught to third-level film and media students.
A selection of films from this season will be available to rent on IFI@Home and worldwide on IFI International.
SCAN HERE TO VIEW MORE ON MARGO HARKIN SEASON
STOLEN
12 DAYS IN JULY
WED 3RD (18.20) SAT 6TH (15.00)
Stolen tells the story of how women who fell pregnant ‘out of wedlock’ were treated in an Ireland dominated by the Catholic Church. Between 1922 and 1998, over 80,000 unmarried mothers were incarcerated in church-run mother and baby homes. Most were cruelly separated from their babies after birth, their children adopted in Ireland and abroad, rendered untraceable and unaware of their birth story. Others were fostered out as cheap farm labour, devoid of care and love. 9,000 infants died in these institutions in this period, at a rate that, on occasion, was five times the national average. Survivors reveal the shocking details of their treatment in a scandal that sparked a government inquiry. In this moving, wholly authoritative work, Margo Harkin has produced a definitive account of this shameful history.
The annual marching season sees the resumption of political tension between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. In the late ‘90s, a return parade from Drumcree Parish Church through a Catholic area of Portadown provided a key focus of conflict between the two communities. Margo Harkin gained access to the two disputing parties – the Orange Order and the residents of Garvaghy Road, a small Catholic enclave on the parade route - to film this compelling account of the events, which were to become so significant in forging a change in the political climate. The film revealed the deeply held convictions of two polarized communities arising out of the Drumcree crisis and foreshadowed the future that could be faced in Northern Ireland if the fragile peace process continued to falter.
106 mins, Ireland, 2023, Digital
60 mins, UK, 1997, Digital
THE HUNGER STRIKE
Made to mark the 25th anniversary of one of the most dramatic periods of Northern Ireland history when in 1981 ten men, including elected MP Bobby Sands, starved to death on hunger strike for the right to political status in prison. The events served as a unifying force for Irish nationalists and marked a watershed in the relationship between the British Government and Irish Republicans. The international standing of Margaret Thatcher was affected as condemnation of British intransigence ricocheted around the world. It brought Sinn Féin into electoral politics and greatly influenced their strong electoral position as the largest political party in Northern Ireland today. One of the most extreme protests in prison history is revealed through first-hand accounts of key protagonists and witnesses central to the events of that time.
Waveriders is a cross-border production by Dublin-based director Joel Conroy and Derry-based creative producer Margo Harkin. This screening on 35mm film will be followed by a Q&A with Joel Conroy and Margo Harkin. SUN 7TH (15.30) WED 17TH (18.30)
Waveriders tells the inspirational and ultimately tragic story of legendary waterman, George Freeth (1883 – 1919), the Hawaiian-born son of an Irishman and the godfather of modern surfing. The epic journey travels from Hawaii to California to Irish shores following Freeth’s far-reaching influence. Irish, British, and US surfers Richie Fitzgerald, Gabe Davies, Kelly Slater, and the Malloy Brothers extol the joys of wave-riding in Ireland in an exhilarating cinematic odyssey. The journey ends with a spectacular climax as today’s pioneers conquer thundering walls of water over 50 foot high in the biggest swell ever to have been ridden off the Irish Atlantic coast, heralding Ireland’s emergence as one of the world’s top surf destinations.
60 mins, UK, 2006, Digital
DIR. JOEL CONROY
BLOODY SUNDAYA DERRY DIARY
EAMONN MCCANN: A LONG MARCH
SAT 20TH (15.30) SUN 21ST (15.30)
On January 30th, 1972, the British Army shot dead thirteen unarmed civilians taking part in a civil rights march in Derry. At the subsequent Tribunal of Inquiry Lord Chief Justice Widgery exonerated the soldiers and blighted the reputations of those who were killed and wounded by describing them as gunmen and bombers. In 1998, in a move that was widely seen as significant in sealing the Northern Ireland peace process, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced a new Tribunal of Inquiry to be led by Lord Saville of Newdigate.
This highly personal documentary, made by Margo Harkin who was witness to the events, follows the 6-year long search for the truth at the second Inquiry until its momentous conclusion on June 15th 2010 when the report was finally published.
86 mins, Ireland, 2010, Digital
In 1968, the youthful Eamonn McCann earned a reputation as a fiery orator at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement in Northern Ireland. After standing unsuccessfully for election over 5 decades, he was finally catapulted to power at the age of 73 as a People Before Profit candidate in the Assembly election on 7 May 2016. By March 2017, he was an ordinary citizen once again, victim of a snap election in a crisis between the Orange and Green two-party bloc. This documentary looks back over the remarkable career of one of Northern Ireland’s best loved provocateurs, exploring the social and political landscape of his upbringing in Derry’s Bogside, and revealing the inside story of his brief moment governmental power, rising from street activist to parliamentarian and back to street activist again.
52 mins, UK, 2018, Digital
HUSH-A-BYE BABY
TUES 23RD (18.20)
Goretti (Emer McCourt) and her friends are four happy-go-lucky 15-year-olds living in the Catholic ghettos of the Bogside and Creggan estates in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1984. When Goretti meets Ciarán (Michael Liebmann) at an Irish language class, a romance begins. But the local political climate is dominated by the ‘supergrass’ (informer) trials and when Ciarán is suddenly arrested Goretti discovers that her troubles have just started. The film explores Irish attitudes to sexuality at a time when religion was an important foundation of social behaviour in Ireland. The film introduces the young Sinéad O’Connor who also wrote the musical score.
80 mins, UK-Ireland, 1990, Digital
It is notable that Harkin’s directorial debut, which won several Irish and international awards, focussed on a young woman dealing with a crisis pregnancy, an issue she would revisit in her most recent feature documentary Stolen .
This restoration from original 16mm elements has been created by the IFI Irish Film Archive for IFI’s Digital Restoration Project funded by Screen Ireland/Fís Éireann and supported by A Season of Classic Films an initiative of ACE – Association des Cinémathèques Européennes supported by the EU Creative Europe MEDIA programme.
MARGO HARKIN: RADICAL WITNESS
MARGO HARKIN: CAREER INTERVIEW
SUN 28TH (15.30)
Margo Harkin will join Sara Greavu (Director of Fire Station Artists’ Studios) for an in-depth, illustrated, career-spanning conversation about a life in film. They will discuss the changing political landscape in which Margo worked; the challenge of carving out space for under-represented voices and the impact of her work on the communities she filmed.
Alongside the works screening in cinema a selection of Margo Harkin’s films are available to watch for free worldwide to screen on the IFI Archive Player.
Titles in the collection include:
NYPD Nude (1994)
Clear The Stage (1997)
A Plague on Both Your Houses (1999)
Looking for Lundy (2000)
You Looking at Me? (2003)
Ocras (2007)
The Return of Colmcille (2014)
The IFI Archive Player is the virtual viewing room for the remarkable moving image collections held in the IFI Irish Film Archive, giving audiences across the globe instant access to this rich heritage.
SCAN THE QR CODE TO VIEW THE IFI ARCHIVE PLAYER
IFI ARCHIVE PLAYER
A Plague on Both Your Houses
IFI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL 2025
WED, SEPTEMBER 10TH — MON, SEPTEMBER 15TH
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 the opening night film, How to Build a Library, an inspirational tale of triumph over adversity from Kenya, and we are delighted that the film’s co-directors, Maia Lekow and Christopher King, will be joining us for a Q&A; 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, who will also be present for a post-screening Q&A; and Myrid Carten’s acclaimed A Want in Her follows the director’s search for her missing mother.
Notes
by David O’Mahony
CREATING CLASSIC CHARACTERS FOR THE SCREEN
COURSE SESSIONS: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7THTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH (18.30 - 20.30)
In this programme, writer Mary Kate O'Flanagan will examine classic characters from film and television. Participants will learn how to:
Communicate the essence of a character economically
Put characters in dramatic predicaments
Find a character’s primary source of motivation
Find a character’s inner conflict and how it resonates with the theme Show when a character’s actions are in violation of their beliefs about themselves
Think about secondary characters and how they interact with the main characters
Put characters in open conflict and hidden conflict with each other.
This material will be valuable to people with an interest in writing, directing, story development or producing and is open to people of all levels of experience.
Places strictly limited. Course fee includes a ticket to Notorious.
There will be a welcome screening of Notorious (1946, Dir. Alfred Hitchcock) on Tuesday, October 7th.
Mary Kate O'Flanagan is an award-winning writer working in the film and television industry as story consultant, co-writer and an uncredited script doctor. You can see more about her work at www.adramaticimprovement.com
Notorious (1946, Dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
IFI SPECIAL EVENTS SEPTEMBER 2025
The Sound of Music (60th Anniversary)
ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME
JOHN HUSTON'S DUBLIN
Join us for free screenings of films from the IFI Irish Film Archive. Simply collect your tickets online (with a small booking fee) or at IFI Box Office.
American film director and Irish citizen John Huston presents a guided tour of Dublin steeped in history and teeming with Dubliners young and old, scripted by author James Plunkett.
PROGRAMME ONE
In Part 1 he visits Moore Street and The Liberties, the horse track and the greyhound track and explores historical sites at the GPO, Kilmainham Gaol and Liberty Hall.
Dir. John McGreevy. 23 mins, Ireland, 1979, Digital
PROGRAMME TWO
Part 2 takes us to Dublin Zoo; Niall Tobin remembers Brendan Behan in Ryan’s Pub; Dublin architecture is explored in its public buildings and Georgian squares, while natural beauty is found along the coast and in the city’s parks.
Dir. John McGreevy. 25 mins, Ireland, 1979, Digital
THE BIGGER PICTURE
THE THIRD MAN
CAROL REED
TUES 9TH (18.30)
What defines a classic? Distinctive gripping plot, richly drawn, complex characters, iconic set, memorable locations, terrific performances, tension, soundtrack? Carol Reed’s 1949 adaptation of Graham Greene’s story bears all these hallmarks and more, reissued in splendid 4K. Its well-known tale set in a disillusioned post-war Vienna, into which lands naïve American writer Holly Martens, intent on revitalising an old friendship with Harry Lime who has been mysteriously run over. Slowly reality is uncovered, with layers of criminality and deception, and a love story that doesn’t fade. No matter how often you see it, it’s a film that continues to give, from the great Lime reveal in out-of-kilter doorways, to the heart stopping underground chase. Novelist and screenwriter John Banville describes it as the perfect film, all set against the magnificent, hummable Anton Karas’s zither soundtrack.
John Banville will introduce The Third Man as his Bigger Picture choice.
104 mins, UK, 1949, 4K Digital, Black & White Notes by Alicia McGivern Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
THE BALLROOM OF ROMANCE
PAT O’CONNOR
TUES 16TH (18.30)
Bridie (Brenda Fricker), a lonely farmer’s daughter, goes to the country ballroom where, as a young girl, she danced and dreamed of a happy marriage. Now, surrounded by younger, livelier women, she decides that she has suffered the indignities of spinsterhood long enough and vows that tonight will be her last bid to find a husband. But the eligible men have all emigrated or are already spoken for and loneliness threatens to drive her into the arms of drunken Bowser Egan (John Kavanagh).
This is a rare chance to see Pat O’Connor’s film of William Trevor’s short story. One of the finest Irish TV dramas of all time, it is a perfectly observed evocation of the desolation and despair of Irish country life in the 1950s. Fricker is outstanding as a woman stoically resigned to her fate.
See also The Swallow (opening Friday, September 19th) on pg. 24. FROM THE VAULTS
IRISH FOCUS
TRUMPETS
THUR 18TH (18.20)
After travelling to Italy on the anniversary of her son’s death, Magda – a Polish immigrant to Ireland – returns to Donegal, where she has a life changing encounter with a refugee, newly arrived from Rwanda. With Malgosia Bela (Muse, 2025, Dir. Pawel Pawlikowski). Shot on location in Bagno Vignoni, Italy, and Donegal, Ireland.
This work of exquisitely slow, contemplative cinema gradually reveals its narrative through audaciously long takes and meticulously choreographed scenes of epic beauty. Dramatist and film director Yvonne McDevitt was the first woman to receive the Arts Council’s Authored Works Award for Trumpets her second feature. Her first, 2Graves (2013), was scored by Michael Nyman. Several of her short films have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
Trumpets was made through the Arts Council’s Authored Works initiative in which IFI are Exhibition Partners.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Yvonne McDevitt
110 mins, Ireland, 2024, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
YVONNE MCDEVITT
52 mins, Ireland, 1952, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
THE SOUND OF MUSIC (60TH ANNIVERSARY) I SWEAR
SAT 20TH (15.00)
One of the most beloved and enduring of all Hollywood musicals returns to the big screen in celebration of its sixtieth anniversary, offering audiences the chance to share or rediscover the film as it was meant to be seen. Based on the award-winning Broadway production, it stars Julie Andrews as Maria, who leaves the abbey in which she was studying to become a nun in order to become governess to the seven talented children of widower Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer).
Featuring classic songs including Sixteen Going on Seventeen, My Favourite Things, and Edelweiss, it’s a treat for all ages.
TUES 23RD (18.00)
I Swear tells the extraordinary true story of John Davidson, who was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome at age 15, during a time when the condition was largely misunderstood. A rift develops between John and his long-suffering mother, Heather (Shirley Henderson), when he forms a bond with Dottie (Maxine Peake), the terminally ill mother of a school friend. As an adult, Davidson (Robert Aramayo) emerged as a tireless campaigner for awareness and acceptance of the condition, working as a community caretaker and founding a support network for individuals and families affected by Tourette’s, advocacy work for which he received an MBE in 2019.
I Swear explores Davidson’s journey from isolation to empowerment, illustrating how he embraced his identity and inspired a new, compassionate understanding of Tourette’s Syndrome.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Kirk Jones.
174 mins, USA, 1965, 4K Digital Notes by Kevin Coyne
120 mins, UK, 2025, Digital Note by David O Mahony
ROBERT WISE KIRK JONES
MR. BURTON SAVAGES MYSTERY MATINEE
From his heyday as one of the finest British actors, to his renown for wild times and numerous marriages to Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton’s legacy has undoubtedly been affected by his ultimate decline into alcoholism. Nevertheless, the story of a Welsh miner’s son who dreamt of becoming an actor and went on to create some of the most memorable stage and film performances of his era, is one worth telling. And so it is with this film, which goes back to his schooldays and the life and times of the teacher, Mr Burton, who believed the unruly schoolboy had a talent worth encouraging. Toby Jones is excellent as the teacher, supported by the brilliant Lesley Manville as Ma.
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 latest stop motion film from the director of the award-winning Ma Vie de Courgette, is this beautiful environmental-themed fable for younger audiences. Set in the rain forest of Borneo, the life of the indigenous Penan people and the lush vegetation are under threat. 11-year-old Keria rescues an abandoned baby orangutan, and is spurred to save the animal, and campaign against the destruction of the forest, along with her forestry worker dad and her indigenous cousin.
With a simple dialogue, exquisite set, and models, Barras’s film focuses on conveying its message without being heavy handed, creating a hugely enjoyable film with an essential theme.
Tickets for IFI Family screenings are €7.00 (individually), and €23.00 (Family of 4).
Join us for this month’s screening at 13.00 on Sunday, September 28th. 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 on screen. 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.
mins,
2025, Digital. Notes by Alicia McGivern
Alicia McGivern
IFI NEW RELEASES DOCS & CLASSICS
SANATORIUM THE COURAGEOUS
GAR O’ROURKE
FROM FRI 5TH
On the outskirts of Odesa, stands Kuyalnyk Sanatorium. Each summer, thousands of Ukrainians come here, drawn by Soviet-era therapies and the chance to relax beside the salt lake. The biggest attraction though, is the mysterious black mud, said to cure infertility, physical disabilities and other ailments.
Sanatorium takes us through a summer season at this place, following the staff as they work hard to provide care, comfort, and entertainment for visitors – even with the war continuing close by. For the guests, it’s an oasis of peace where they seek healing, love and renewal in an uncertain world.
Gar O’Rourke’s quietly observational film captures the heart and soul of this remarkable resort, revealing a different perspective of life in Ukraine during the war.
The screening on Friday 5th at 18.20 will be followed by Q&A with Director Gar O’Rourke.
Are you an IFI Friend? Join us for our next IFI Cinema Club discussion after the screening at 18.15 on Tuesday 9th.
JASMIN GORDON
CINEMAS: FROM FRI 5TH
IFI@HOME: FROM FRI, OCT 6TH
In the stunning Valais region of Switzerland, 40-year-old Jule (Ophélia Kolb), a spirited but struggling single mother, battles the invisible weight of poverty and societal judgment in Jasmin Gordon’s sure-footed, confident debut feature. Jule’s children – ten-year-old Claire, eight-year-old Loïc, and six-year-old Sami – must learn to fend for themselves as their unpredictable mother, whose criminal past is evident in her police ankle bracelet, is prone to extended periods of mysterious absence. Gordon’s well observed film examines the obstacles that prevent this family from achieving a life that matches their idyllic surroundings, the beauty of the Alpine setting contrasting sharply with their hardscrabble life on the margins of an affluent society. Desperate to protect her children and preserve their fragile joy, Jule crafts a life of illusion and resilience, determined to prove, above all, that she is still a good mother.
83 mins, Switzerland, 2024, Digital, Subtitled Notes by David O’Mahony
90 mins, Ireland-Ukraine, 2024, Digital, Subtitled Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
DEAF FROM GROUND ZERO
EVA LIBERTAD VARIOUS
CINEMAS: FROM FRI 12TH
IFI@HOME: FROM FRI, OCT 17TH
The arrival of a baby puts a strain on the relationship between Ángela (Mirian Garlo), who is deaf, and her hearing partner Héctor (Alvaro Cervantes), in Eva Libertad’s compassionate, sensitive debut feature, a deserving winner of this year’s Audience Award in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section. Despite both claiming they are ready, the couple’s underlying concerns are evident; Ángela’s deafness is the result of a genetic congenital condition and there is a 50/50 chance their baby will be deaf, something that is of particular concern to Ángela’s hearing parents.
Following a difficult birth, the couple must wait a couple of months to learn if the baby is hearing or not. Héctor struggles to fully grasp the challenges Ángela is facing, while she must come to terms with raising a daughter who may not share her experience of the world.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 20.20 on Saturday 13th, and 14.00 on Wednesday 17th.
99
FROM FRI 12TH
Charming, wistful, heartbreaking, hopeful and urgent. Palestine’s official entry to the 2025 Academy Awards, From Ground Zero, brings dozens of emerging Palestinian artists to the fore in an urgent cry for humanity from a people under siege.
These are only a snapshot of the stories shared. Chronicling the lives of people too often discussed in reference to numbers and refugee camps, From Ground Zero is an extraordinary time capsule, an urgent response to an ongoing catastrophe, and an artist’s call to bear witness to a crime scene. It is a reminder that despite sustained efforts to silence them – the film stricken from the 2024 Cannes lineup on political grounds after initially being accepted –the voice of the Palestinian people is louder than ever through art and film.
mins, Spain, 2025, Digital , Subtitled Notes by David O’Mahony
THE GOLDEN SPURTLE GHOST TRAIL
(LES FANTÔMES)
CONSTANTINE COSTI
FROM FRI 12TH
Each year the sleepy Scottish highland village of Carrbridge welcomes a diverse group of international contestants as they gather for the prestigious World Porridge Making Championships, each vying for the coveted Golden Spurtle trophy. For ageing, charismatic, and soon-to-retire organiser Charlie Miller, this competition means so much more than just a bowl of steaming oats (with no dairy, as per Scottish tradition). With a strong sense of pride and responsibility to his fellow porridge committee members, Charlie is on a mission to secure the future of the championships and his own legacy. Filmed against the breathtaking backdrop of the highland landscapes, and blending humour, heartfelt storytelling, and endearingly eccentric character portraits, The Golden Spurtle is less about oats and more about passion, tradition, and friendship.
This film will be followed by a pre-recorded Q&A with director Constantine Costi and Spurtle legend Charlie Phillips.
75 mins, UK-Australia, 2025, Digital
JONATHAN MILLET
FROM FRI 19TH
The conventions of a John Le Carré-style spy thriller are imaginatively applied to a study of trauma and PTSD in Jonathan Millet’s nail-biting debut fiction feature. The year is 2015; Hamid (Adam Bessa) is a bereaved Syrian exile living a quietly ordered life in Strasbourg, whose world is upended when he thinks he recognises a man from his past. Gradually we become aware that Hamid is part of clandestine network of Syrians intent on tracking down those responsible for the worst atrocities of Bashar’s regime. He is convinced, to the chagrin of his sceptical handler Nina (Julia Franz Richter), that he has identified Harfaz, a brutal criminal at whose hands Hamid suffered. A cat and mouse game ensues that will reveal much about Hamid’s tortured psychological state and desire for retribution.
119 mins, Canada-France, 2024, Digital, Subtitled
Notes by David O’Mahony
Notes by David O’Mahony
GIRLS & BOYS STEVE
DONNCHA GILMORE
FROM FRI 19TH
Rugby player Jace (Adam Lunnon-Collery) meets aspiring filmmaker Charlie (Liath Hannon) at a college party. Both attend Trinity College, but their worlds couldn’t be more different; Charlie is trans, her circle full of queer artists and creatives, while Jace is more comfortable with the locker-room banter of his rugby teammates. When the party is suddenly shut down by the Guards, the two find themselves alone in the streets of nighttime Dublin. As they wander the city, sharing secrets, dreams, and fears about life after college, a surprising revelation from their shared past threatens to upend their fragile connection. Jace must confront not only his past, but the social identity he’s long taken for granted. A tender, agreeably lo-fi romance whose talkative couple call to mind Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy.
The screening on Saturday 20th at 18.30 will be followed by a Q&A.
TIM MIELANTS
FROM FRI 19TH
Steve (Cillian Murphy) is a headteacher in an English last-chance reform school for youths who have been forsaken by society. As he fights to protect the school’s integrity and impending closure, Steve grapples with his own mental and physical health and with difficult events of his past. Shy (Jay Lycurgo), a troubled teen who has alienated the people he loves, tries to reconcile his inner fragility with his impulse for self-destruction and violence. Meanwhile the staff, under Steve’s inspiring guidance, work to curb the excessive behaviours of the boys in their care with ingenuity and compassion.
Based on Max Porter’s bestselling novel Shy and reuniting Cillian Murphy and Tim Mielants (Small Things Like These), the film delivers a high-intensity, visceral ride laced with moments of deep humanity. There will be Open Captioned screenings at 13.00 on Saturday 20th, and 18.30 on Thursday 25th.
81 mins, Ireland, 2025, Digital Notes by David O’Mahony
93 mins, Ireland-UK, 2025, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
THE SWALLOW
BRIDES
NADIA FALL
FROM FRI 19TH
In a small house by the sea, a woman begins a letter to an unknown correspondent. Surrounded by the books, mementoes and clutter of her life, her home exposed to the waves of a rising ocean, she writes about the history of lost art. Considering what has been lost, and wondering about her own desire to hold on, she meditates on memory and on art’s aspiration to immortality. Tadhg O’Sullivan (To the Moon) is one of Ireland’s most talented and innovative filmmakers. Best known for his documentary essays, he moves here into new territory with an experimental drama featuring a fictional character played with signature understatement by Oscar-winning Brenda Fricker.
The screening on Friday 19th will be followed by a Q&A with director Tadhg O’Sullivan.
See also From the Vaults: The Ballroom of Romance on pg. 14
FROM FRI 26TH
England, 2014; two disillusioned 15-year-old Muslim girls - Doe, a quiet Somali-born refugee, and Muna, a defiant Pakistani teenager – flee their suburban lives, lured to Syria by online propaganda. Alienated by racism, domestic abuse, and a society that sees them as outsiders, they make their way to Istanbul, only to be left stranded when their contact fails to appear. Refusing to turn back, they continue the journey alone, navigating unfamiliar cities, and testing the limits of their friendship. Through flashbacks, we discover the traumas and longing that shaped their choices. With raw performances and moments of unexpected humour, Brides is a bracing coming-of-age story that resists easy moral judgments, instead spotlighting the vulnerability behind radicalisation and the girls’ desperate search for belonging in a world that left them behind.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 18.20 on Friday 26th, and 15.40 on Tuesday 30th.
73 mins, Ireland, 2023, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
TADHG O’SULLIVAN
93 mins, UK, 2025, Digital Notes by David O’Mahony
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
PAUL
FROM FRI 26TH
After his freewheeling, shaggy dog adaptation of Inherent Vice ( 2014), Paul Thomas Anderson, one of contemporary American cinema’s leading directors (Boogie Nights (1997); The Master (2012); There Will Be Blood (2007) and Phantom Thread (2017), both starring Daniel Day-Lewis) once again finds inspiration in the work of author Thomas Pynchon, loosely updating the themes and characters of novel Vineland (1990) to a contemporary setting. Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and partner Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) are members of revolutionary group the French 75. Life is complicated by the arrival of daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti), and their constant pursuit by Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), Perfidia’s former partner. Lockjaw’s eventual, inevitable resurfacing forces Bob to contact members of the disbanded group to help protect his daughter. There are some surprising new additions to Anderson’s palette in his latest star-studded, action-packed, darkly comic epic. There will be digital Open Captioned screenings at 19.40 on Tuesday 30th, and 16.00 on Wednesday, October 1st.
THE ICE STORM
ANG LEE
FROM FRI 26TH
Following the success of his first English-language film, the Oscar-winning Sense and Sensibility (1995), recently screened at the IFI, the next entry in Taiwanese director Ang Lee’s admirably eclectic body of work mined affluent 1970s American suburbia for its exploration of familial ennui. Ben (Kevin Kline) and Elena Hood (Joan Allen) and children Paul (Tobey Maguire) and Wendy (Christina Ricci) are close to neighbours the Carvers. This closeness extends to Ben’s affair with mother Janey (Sigourney Weaver) and Wendy’s sexual explorations with sons Mikey (Elijah Wood) and Sandy (Adam Hann-Byrd). As the parents seek to break from conformity at a key party while their children seek connection, a winter storm descends on the neighbourhood on a night that ends with tragedies large and small. Lee’s empathetic depiction of loneliness stands as one of the best American films of the 1990s.
168 mins, USA, 2025, 70mm, Digital Notes by Kevin Coyne
THOMAS ANDERSON
112 mins, USA-France, 1997, Digital Notes by Kevin Coyne
STREAMING NOW!
With the catalogue of films available on IFI@Home growing steadily since the platform’s establishment, it was felt that new viewers might appreciate some tips on where to start, while viewers more familiar with the range of titles on offer may welcome recommendations of films they might not previously have considered.
To this end, we have asked some of the guests we are fortunate enough to have had pass through our Eustace Street home to recommend five films that can be seen on the platform, according to their own personal tastes.
We hope this will help viewers to find undiscovered gems.
Contributors so far include Donald Clarke, Chief Film Correspondent at The Irish Times.
SCAN HERE TO EXPLORE THE LISTS
Hole in the Head
(Dir. Dean Kavanagh)
FROM WED, SEPT 10TH – MON, SEPT 18TH
Wang Zhenxi is a professional mistress dispeller; available for hire by couples experiencing infidelity, she is given licence to break up affairs by any means necessary. With strikingly intimate access, Elizabeth Lo’s film reveals stories usually hidden behind closed doors, exploring the ways emotion, pragmatism and cultural norms collide to shape romantic relationships in contemporary China.
This film is available only during IFI Documentary Festival. For more information see ifi.ie/docfest
MISTRESS DISPELLER LATE SHIFT
STREAMING NOW!
Floria, a dedicated surgical nurse in a Swiss hospital, navigates a relentless daily pace of work with unwavering professionalism and warmth.
YORGOS LANTHIMOS
STREAMING NOW!
In a fenced compound lives a family under the strict control of a father who takes perverse pleasure in feeding the children misinformation. Now adults, they have no knowledge of the world beyond the fence.
