The Banshees of Inisherin
The Banshees of Inisherin is a 2022 black tragicomedy film directed, written, and co-produced by Martin McDonagh. Set on a fictional remote island off the west coast of Ireland in 1923, the film stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two lifelong friends who find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their friendship, with severe consequences for both of them. Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan co-star. It reunites Farrell and Gleeson after McDonagh's directorial debut In Bruges.
The film had its world premiere on 5 September 2022 at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, where Farrell won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor and McDonagh won Best Screenplay. It was theatrically released in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States on 21 October 2022 by Searchlight Pictures. The film received largely positive reviews, with particular praise for McDonagh's direction and screenplay, the performances of the cast, and Carter Burwell's score. It grossed $52 million worldwide against a $20 million budget.
The Banshees of Inisherin received nine nominations at the 95th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. At the 80th Golden Globe Awards, it won three awards: Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actor – Musical or Comedy, and Best Screenplay. It also won four BAFTA Awards from ten nominations at the 76th British Academy Film Awards: Outstanding British Film, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and Best Original Screenplay.
The film was also named one of the Top Ten Films of 2022 by the National Board of Review. It has since been cited as among the best films of the 2020s and the 21st century so far.
Plot
In the spring of 1923, near the end of the Irish Civil War, on the fictional isle of Inisherin, fiddler Colm Doherty abruptly begins ignoring his lifelong best friend and drinking buddy Pádraic Súilleabháin. When a hurt Pádraic presses Colm for an explanation, he says that Pádraic is too dull, and he would rather spend the remainder of his life composing music and doing things for which he will be remembered. Pádraic is devastated and refuses to accept the situation, while Colm only becomes more resistant to his old friend's attempts to make amends, eventually giving Pádraic an ultimatum: every time Pádraic talks to him, Colm will cut off one of his own fingers.The local Garda, Peadar Kearney, beats his troubled son Dominic severely for drinking his poitín, and Pádraic and his sister, Siobhán, take Dominic in for a night. While delivering milk to the market, Pádraic is insulted by Peadar and retaliates by making public the fact that Peadar abuses his son. Peadar punches him to the ground. Having witnessed this, Colm drives Pádraic home; the two do not speak.
Siobhán and Dominic try to defuse the pair's feud, to no avail. Pádraic drunkenly confronts Colm and berates him for throwing away their friendship, as well as for drinking with Peadar, whom he publicly accuses of molesting Dominic. After Siobhán leads Pádraic away, Colm says that this is the most interesting Pádraic has ever been, which Dominic overhears. The next morning, not remembering what he has said, Pádraic attempts to apologise to Colm, but the conversation goes badly. Colm responds by cutting off his left index finger and throwing it at Pádraic's door.
Pádraic later sees Colm meeting with Declan, a fiddler from the mainland. Jealous, Pádraic tricks Declan into returning home by lying that his father was hit by a bread van. As the tensions worsen, local elder Mrs McCormick warns Pádraic that death will come to the island soon. Dominic tells Pádraic what Colm said about him in the pub; encouraged, Pádraic tells Dominic what he did to Declan, but Dominic, disappointed, rejects him as mean and refuses to speak to him anymore. Thereafter, Siobhán sympathetically rejects Dominic's romantic advances.
Pádraic gets drunk and starts another confrontation with Colm at Colm's house; Colm says he has finished composing his song and seems finally open to renewing their friendship, but Pádraic drunkenly reveals what he did to Declan. Instead of meeting Pádraic at the pub, Colm cuts off all four of his remaining left fingers and throws them at Padraic's door.
Fed up by the feud and long bored with life on the island, Siobhán moves to the mainland for a job in a library. Devastated, Pádraic comes home to find his pet donkey Jenny has choked to death on one of Colm's fingers. He confronts Colm at the pub; Colm offers a truce, but an embittered Pádraic informs him that he will burn his house down the next day at 2 pm. At the promised time the next day, Pádraic does so; he looks in a window and sees Colm calmly sitting inside. Pádraic takes Colm's dog Sammy with him to save him from the fire. Peadar watches Pádraic burn down the house, and as he rushes to Pádraic's house to confront him, he encounters Mrs McCormick, who leads Peadar to Dominic's corpse in the lake. After returning home, Pádraic writes a letter to Siobhán that says Jenny is doing well and glosses over his lonely, friendless life.
The next morning, Pádraic takes Sammy back and finds Colm, who survived the fire, standing on the beach beside his burnt-out house. Colm apologises for the donkey's death and suggests destroying the house has ended their feud; Pádraic replies that it would have ended only if Colm had stayed inside. Colm wonders whether the Civil War is coming to an end; Pádraic replies he is sure the fighting will begin again soon because "some things there's no moving on from", adding that he thinks that is "a good thing" before leaving. Unbeknownst to either, Mrs McCormick silently watches them from the remains of Colm's house.
Cast
- Colin Farrell as Pádraic Súilleabháin
- Brendan Gleeson as Colm Doherty
- Kerry Condon as Siobhán Súilleabháin
- Barry Keoghan as Dominic Kearney
- Gary Lydon as Garda Peadar Kearney
- Pat Shortt as publican Jonjo Devine
- Sheila Flitton as Mrs McCormick
- Bríd Ní Neachtain as postmistress Mrs O'Riordan
- Jon Kenny as Gerry
- Aaron Monaghan as Declan
- David Pearse as priest
- Lasairfhíona Ní Chonaola as female singer
- John Carty as older musician 1
Production
Principal photography began in August 2021 on Inishmore before moving to Achill Island, County Mayo, later that month. Locations used on Achill include Cloughmore, Corrymore Lake, Keem Bay, Purteen Harbour, and St. Thomas's Church in Dugort. Filming wrapped on 23 October 2021.
Costume designer Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh discussed the pains she and her team took to make the wardrobe not feel like "a pastiche of the Aran Islands", which included using cloth that was entirely homespun and only using Irish wools, linens, and overdyed fabrics. For Pádraic's red jumper, Mhaoldomhnaigh envisioned what his sister, Siobhán, would have genuinely been motivated to make for him. "I can imagine Siobhán thinking, 'Oh my God, the winter's going to be very cold. I'm going to knit him a jumper,' then making the little collar as a kind of personal touch... there's a beautiful naiveté to the way he dresses, but it's very tender as well, that idea that she adds this little touch to it. I think it says so much about him and his relationship with Siobhán, and his relationship with where he lives and his Irishness", Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh explained.
For Colm, Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh said: "There had to be something of the poet in the way he dressed, but without it being very ostentatious. So, he wears some corduroy that's nicely dyed and a saffron-colored linen shirt. There's that element of, not vanity, but a knowingness of somebody who has travelled to the outside world at some point and brought back ideas of what a poet or a musician should look like."
Music
The original score is by Carter Burwell, McDonagh's frequent collaborator. McDonagh did not want Burwell to compose an "Irish-based" score, despite the film's setting. For Pádraic's character, Burwell attempted "child-like" and "Disney character" music; he also used fiddle-themed compositions for Colm. The soundtrack was digitally released by Hollywood Records on 21 October 2022 along with the film.The film also has traditional pub music session scenes with Irish music, in which traditional musicians join Gleeson, who plays the fiddle. The other musicians are John Carty, his son James Carty, Conor Connolly, Oliver Farrelly, and Ryan Owens. In one scene, Lasairfhíona Ní Chonaola sings the Irish song "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day".
The film's opening scene is set to the traditional Bulgarian folk song "Polegnala e Todora ", arranged by Filip Kutev and performed by the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir.
Release
Theatrical
The Banshees of Inisherin had its world premiere on 5 September 2022 at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, where it received a 15-minute standing ovation from the audience, the longest of that year's festival. It also screened at the 47th Toronto International Film Festival that month and as the opening-night film of the 31st Philadelphia Film Festival on 19 October 2022. It was theatrically released on 21 October 2022.The film returned to U.S. cinemas on 27 January 2023 to celebrate its Academy Award nominations.
Home media
The film was released on rental PVOD and made available to stream on HBO Max on 13 December 2022, and was released on Blu-ray and DVD on 20 December 2022 by 20th Century Home Entertainment and Disney / Buena Vista; bonus features include the featurette "Creating The Banshees of Inisherin" and deleted scenes.The Banshees of Inisherin was released on Disney+ as part of the Star content hub in selected regions on 14 December 2022 and 21 December 2022 in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The film was also released on Disney+ Hotstar in India on 14 December 2022. It was made available to stream on Hulu on 4 September 2023.