The Banshees Of Inisherin: Read the script of Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy

Editor’s note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the screenplays of films that will appear in this year’s film awards races.

Blueprint Pictures producer and co-founder Graham Broadbent was traveling through South America when he received the script for Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees by Inisherin. After immersing himself in the lives of the people on the small island, he knew he had his next McDonagh film. Broadbent and the earlier Irish dramatists In Bruges (2008), Seven psychopaths (2012) and Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) together, with Bruges and billboard Oscar nominations for the original screenplay.

Starring Colin Ferrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan, Searchlight Pictures’ Banshees follows Pádraic (Farrell) and Colm (Gleeson), best friends who come to a halt when Colm unexpectedly ends their friendship. A stunned Pádraic, aided by his sister Siobhán (Condon) and troubled young islander Dominic (Keoghan), tries to repair the relationship against Colm’s wishes. Pádraic’s repeated attempts only strengthen his former friend’s resolve, and when Colm delivers a desperate ultimatum, events quickly escalate with shocking consequences.

Banshees is a story about the war. The film is set in 1923 at the height of the Irish Civil War. The fictional island of Inisherin (but filmed on the real islands of Inishmore and Achill) is not affected, but there is tension over the water on the mainland. “Sometimes there is cannon fire and gun fire, so we know very well that there is a civil war on the island,” says Farrell. “But we’re also kind of protected from that because we’re remote and we’re a coastal outpost.”

“Are you completely devoted to the life of an artist and do you ignore friends or loved ones or family?” McDonagh says about the broader theme of the film. “Is work the most important thing? Does it matter who gets hurt? That’s a discussion that neither I nor the film will answer. I don’t think one has to be self-destructive or a dark or hateful person to make any kind of art, not even dark art. But I definitely think the film explores this interesting mystery.”

Click below to read his script.