Synopsis: On Inisherin – an isolated island off the west coast of Ireland – two lifelong friends, Padraic and Colm, find themselves at an impasse when Colm decides overnight to end their friendship. Stunned, Padraic does not accept the situation and tries by all means to put the pieces back together, with the support of his sister Siobhan and Dominic, a young islander who is a little disturbed. But Padraic’s repeated efforts only strengthen his former friend’s resolve and when Colm finally issues a desperate ultimatum, events escalate with dire consequences.
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The Banshees of Inisherin is one of those films whose script, whatever it may be in one line, continues to resonate, to expand and to haunt us like the cry of a banshee. The new film by Martin McDonagh (7 psychopaths, 3 Billboards) tells us about the breakdown of the friendship between two men. A seemingly banal event that quickly takes on the dimension of a civil war, on the scale of the small island of Inisherin. The great story, the real war that the divided Irish ended in the spring of 1923, is only a barely perceptible detail, a smoke in the open sea, the sound of an explosion. The inhabitants of Inisherin observe it from afar, comment on the explosions and are careful not to take sides. In the eyes of all, the War of Independence put a little animation in a daily life punctuated by agricultural work and trips to the pub. The flagrant absurdity of the quarrel between Colm and Padraic redoubles the absurdity sensed of the fratricidal war between the Irish in the distance, a conflict whose stakes no one understands anymore and whose origin everyone has forgotten. The two men humanly oppose two conceptions of life. The first intends to leave a mark and refuses to waste his time downing beers while listening to the daily hassles of the second. The latter does not measure the value of their friendship by what they accomplish, nor by the depth of their conversations, but by the simple fact of sharing something – even if only a pint and a few anecdotes of meager interest. Padraic’s only other friends are his donkey and the village idiot, individuals whose simplicity and authenticity he appreciates.
Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin by Martin McDonagh / Searchlight Pictures Credits
All the subtlety of the conflict stems from this: no initial hatred, no tangible reproach. Only the incompatible character of the respective aspirations forges the knot of discord. With unfounded tension, Martin McDonagh manages to unfold a cascade of clumsy maneuvers, failed good intentions, revengeful one-upmanship, until a vulgar quarrel turns to tragedy.
The two actors perfectly embody their characters, extreme and die-hard. Colin Farrel (7 psychopaths, The Lobster) overplays the simplicity of a Padraic desperate to reconnect with his old comrade. Without knowing anything of their friendship before the breakup, his excessive affection and his glimmers of hope are enough to establish him as precious. Brendan Gleeson (Harry Potter, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) conversely portrays a scowling Colm, who defends his positions and perceives attempts at conciliation or the need for explanations from the other as repeated aggression, even a lack of empathy. Rarely has a relationship exemplified so well on screen what it means to “not be on the same wavelength”.
Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin by Martin McDonagh / Searchlight Pictures Credits
On the distant horizon where the conflict rages – and where only Siobhan, educated and pacifying, resolves to venture – responds the suffocating self-segregation of the island community. Even when travelers pass and pass through the local pub, the same partitioned landscapes are repeated day after day, the same gray stone walls that divide the countryside. Carter Burwell’s excellent soundtrack replays in its heady repetition the insular suffocation and the vicious circle of internal war.
By defusing the predictions of the local witch and choosing not to give Colm and Padraic’s conflict a definitive conclusion, Martin McDonagh places his film in an endless cycle, where for some reason yesterday’s friends kill each other, where truces are fragile and where the innocent inevitably suffer from the excesses of their peers. The Banshees of Inisherin is a wacky fable about human madness, the fragility of the ties that unite us to each other and the irreconcilable role of subjective sensibilities within the great History.
A new masterstroke for the award-winning director whose twisting tales of human nature and scathing humor continue to move us!
Aesane Geeraert
- THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN (The Banshees of Inisherin)
- Theatrical release: December 28, 2022
- Directed by: Martin McDonagh
- With: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan, Gary Lydon, David Pearse, Pat Shortt, Sheila Flitton, Jon Kenny, Aaron Monaghan, Brid Ni Neachtain…
- Screenplay: Martin McDonagh
- Producers: Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin
- Photography: Ben Davis
- Editing: Mikkel EG Nielsen
- Sets: Michael Standish, Mark Tildesley
- Costumes: Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh
- Music: Carter Burwell
- Distribution : The Walt Disney Company France
- Duration: 1 hour 54 minutes
The Banshees of Inisherin by Martin McDonagh: review | CineChronicle