
Martin McDonagh is the poet laureate of profanity and invective, as fans of In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri can swear to. He will take a simple difference of opinion and transform it into deadpan comic aria of pigheadedness and mounting consternation. And in Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson he has a perfect double act: the dim hunk—Pádraic—and the old curmudgeon, Colm, best buddies almost by default. But then one day, out of the blue, Colm announces he’s had it up to here with his best friend, and cuts him off once and for all. One more word, he dares him, he’ll take a pair of garden shears and start chopping off the fingers on his own hand. The way he says it, you know he’d do it, and before long the whole village is consumed in the breakup.
Set on one of the Aran Islands on the west coast of Ireland in the 1920s, The Banshees of Inisherin may be a quieter, more contemplative film than McDonagh’s shown us before (County Galway has never looked more ravishing), but it’s uproariously funny all the same, guaranteed to bring the house down.
Best Actor (Colin Farrell) & Best Screenplay, Venice 2022
Martin McDonagh
Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan
Ireland/UK/USA
2022
English
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Blue Trail
In a near-future Brazil, elderly citizens are forcibly relocated to live out their days in a senior housing colony. When 77-year-old Tereza learns that she will soon be taken away, she embarks on a fantastical odyssey into the Amazon.
Shifting Baselines
Towering rockets rise as wetlands vanish in this sly black-and-white documentary about SpaceX’s conquest of Boca Chica, Texas. With sci-fi aesthetics and observational calm, the film exposes how cosmic dreams begin with the quiet erasure of Earth.
A Poet
When embittered poet Oscar Restrepo takes a job at a local high school, he meets Yurlady, a talented student from a poor background. Seeking to help her cultivate her art, he draws her into the poetry world — to disastrous and comedic results.
La Salsa Vive
An exuberant celebration of salsa that traces the genre's evolution from New York City in the 1960s and 70s to Cali, Colombia — the salsa capital of the world. Carvajal’s documentary highlights the rich legacy of this musical form and the joy it inspires.
Memory of Princess Mumbi
Can a filmmaker depict the future without AI? Damien Hauser crafts a genre-blending Afro-speculative fable about love, war, and the future of storytelling in a resurrected African kingdom. A micro-budget epic fueled by digital invention and heart.
Winter Light
Da-bin has a broke mother, a runaway brother, and a sister who’s going deaf, but gets by thanks to his best friend and caring girlfriend. Poignant and poetic, this is a film that explores the pain of adolescence and the stress of competing loyalties.
Credits
Executive Producer
Diarmuid McKeown, Ben Knight, Daniel Battsek, Ollie Madden
Producer
Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh
Screenwriter
Martin McDonagh
Cinematography
Ben Davis
Editor
Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
Production Design
Mark Tildesley
Original Music
Carter Burwell