‘The Banshees of Inisherin‘ is Martin McDonagh‘s fourth feature film and the first to be set in Ireland. In fact, it could be an adaptation of the third play in the ‘Aran Islands trilogy’, of which the first two plays have already been published and staged with considerable success. The third, however, the Anglo-Irish dramatist considered insufficiently good to see the lights of the printing and the stage, and its finalization was postponed. All the characteristics of the previous works of the playwright and screenwriter Martin McDonagh are here: strong and tense conflict, few and well-defined characters who are pushed into borderline situations, a pessimistic view of the world and society. To these ‘The Banshees of Inisherin‘ adds an Irish theme – both as a profile of the characters and as reflections of a difficult history characterized by conflicts and internal rifts that are difficult to reconcile and overcome. As is the case with many good films, this one can be interpreted and explained on many levels – as a personal story, as a parable with biblical resonance, or as a metaphor for historical conflicts.
The story takes place on an (imaginary) island located a few kilometers off the coast of Ireland. Whoever can crosses to the ‘mainland’, that is, Ireland, another island, much bigger, where the civil war haunts, but where life is more interesting and the opportunities are different. Few remain. The community they live in probably has a few dozen houses and families, a pub, a policeman, a shop where basic goods are bought, where mail is delivered (sometimes after having been read by indiscrete eyes) and where rumors are circulated. Everybody knows everybody. The heroes of the film, Pádraic and Colm, were, until the scene that opens the film, two good friends. Every day at 2 o’clock they met to go to the pub together, until one day when Colm decided he no longer wanted to talk to Pádraic. Colm is a musician, he plays the violin and because he wants to leave something behind he composes a song whose name is also the title of the film. Pádraic is a very good-hearted boy, but a bit boring, and Colm feels that he has no time for him. Siobhán, Pádraic’s sister, tries in vain to reconcile them. She herself, already past the age of marriage, dreams of leaving the island, perhaps to find a place where she can use her passion for reading. Pádraic’s insistence and Colm’s stubbornness will gradually escalate the conflict to unpredictable extremes.
The film benefits from extremely well written dialogues and an exceptional cast. In this film, Martin McDonagh brings back in the main roles the two actors who 16 years ago ensured the success of his most famous film, ‘In Bruges’. It’s hard to believe that Colin Farrell, who plays Pádraic, could miss the Academy Award for Best Actor this yeat, but Brendan Gleeson isn’t far off either. Outstanding supporting roles are also played by Kerry Condon (Siobhán) and Barry Keoghan, who plays Dominic, the son of the island’s policeman, a victim of domestic violence, who has become a kind of fool of the island. In less than two hours, McDonagh creates an entire human universe that absorbs viewers. The meanings of the text, however, go beyond the ambitions of a simple domestic drama. Banshees are female embodied spirits that can foretell the future. There is one character who fits this profile who also appears in key scenes, and her omens are grim. Death lurks around every bend in the paths or on the high cliffs. The dialogues include a wealth of allusions to life and death, kindness and loneliness, hope and despair. The most obvious metaphor, however, is that of the island. Inisherin is a small island next to a mainland towards which the dreams and aspirations of the inhabitants are directed. There, however, haunt conflicts, wars, and other evils of large societies. The ratio of forces and sizes recalls Ireland’s destiny relative to that of Great Britain or the United States, to which the population of Ireland has been emigrating for centuries. . The misunderstandings and conflicts caused by the very nature of people, however, do not bypass even small communities, and inevitably the accumulated passions will erupt into violence. The outbreak is ugly and hard to understand, like in a horror movie. But what are the ethnic or religious conflicts that we live in so many places of the world but horror episodes? We all live on islands, bigger or smaller, and hate is everywhere. The final scene may indicate hope (the violent outburst is over, not before causing casualties) but also an uneasy coexistence with unresolved tensions in the future.