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
Intimate Moments: Short Films by Brendan Prost
Vignettes of loneliness, desire and fleeting connection, immerse yourself in the short, bittersweet films of Brendan Prost — who will also be filming proceedings for potential inclusion in his self-reflexive doc, The Performance of a Lifetime.
Winter Kept Us Warm
Often described as the first LGBTQ+ film ever to screen at the Cannes Film Festival, David Secter's lovingly observed portrait of a burgeoning queer romance came at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in the country
Last Wedding: Jubilee Screening with Bruce Sweeney
Named the Best Canadian film of 2001 by the Vancouver and Toronto Film Critics, Bruce Sweeney's third feature took a wry look at contemporary relationships through the experiences of three thirtysomething couples whose relationships are about to implode.
Agatha's Almanac
Shot over six years on vibrant 16mm film, Agatha’s Almanac is an artful documentary portrait of filmmaker Amalie Atkin’s octogenarian aunt, who has fashioned herself an endearingly simple and self-sustaining lifestyle on her Manitoba farm.
Modern Whore
In director Nicole Bazuin's cheeky, stylized documentary, Modern Whore-memoirist Andrea Werhun (Paying for It) recounts her experiences as an escort and stripper in Toronto, debunking misconceptions about the world’s oldest profession.
The Art of Adventure
The unbelievable adventure story of how painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster drove a Land Rover from Africa to Australia in 1957, developing a love of nature to last a lifetime. An inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.
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