“Inisherin’s Banshees”: about mourning, broken friendships and the Irish Civil War

It is said that a friendship finds its highest quality in understanding and being understood. But if suddenly someone wants to break that friendship with you, what to do? Resign and move on? Trying to convince or persuade? This topic, among many others, deals with ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’, the new film by Martin McDonagh. After making its way through the Venice and Toronto film festivals last year, where it won the occasional award, the film stands as one of the big names in the running for this year’s Oscars. For now, ‘Almas en pena de Inisherin’ comes to Spanish cinema screens with the intention of pairing, at least, box office success with critical acclaim, which has been tremendous.

The Anglo-Irish director began to make himself known in the late 90s for his violent and grotesque comedies until, in 2004, he made the leap to cinema. He made his debut with the short ‘Six Shooter’, which earned him the Oscar for best short film. Since then, he would only direct three films, ‘Hiding in Bruges’, ‘Seven Psychopaths’ and ‘Three Billboards on the Outskirts’, the latter being the one that earned him real recognition from audiences and critics alike all over the world. the world. However, thanks to these three jobs he succeeded carve out a style of his own, where he tackles tremendously serious and profound themes through black comedy, socio-rural drama and human baseness. Furthermore, it allowed him to have a series of fetish actors who appear recurringly in his work, as in the case of Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell or the two protagonists of “Almas en torpedo de Inisherin”.

For his new film, McDonagh has recovered the two main faces of his debut film, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, who play Pádraic and Colm, two lifelong friends who one morning find their relationship spiraling into catastrophe. Colm no longer wants to be friends with Pádraic, and that means an apocalypse for the latter because he doesn’t understand his life without changes and, above all, he doesn’t understand his life without him as his friend. From this simple and unambiguous premise, the film takes surprising turns when Pádraic tries to rekindle their friendship and failing, Colm issues him an ultimatum. This will have consequences not only for the pair of ex-friends, but for the whole island and, above all, for Pádric’s sister, Siobhán (Kerry Condon), and the troubled young man of the town, Dóminic (Barry Keoghan).

contradictory cinema

If we put the new McDonagh on a scale, drama and comedy would remain in the most absolute balance. “Inisherin’s Banshee” is a comedy-drama in all its glory, in the strictest sense of the word. Supported by some huge Farrell and Gleeson (who if they weren’t nominated for an Oscar would be a new outrage for the Academy), the film flows as free as it is enthralling, as exhilarating as it is metaphysical, as depressing as it is full of hope. It is, as was the case with his previous works (especially with ‘Three Billboards in the Suburbs’), a sort of contemporary and contradictory noir that encompasses both black comedy and more classic and traditional melodrama.

It’s not just a clash of shades, it is Pádraic and Colm enter into a small war of understandings, of philosophies, which ends up being disastrous for both.. Colm, an aging violinist, is more interested in composing and transcending musically than wasting his time overboard on trivial conversations that are nothing more than empty talk. However, that empty talk is all that Pádraic has, a lonely and limited farmer who sees his world upside down when his longtime colleague tells him something painfully simple: “I don’t want to be your friend anymore”. It is in this fierce contrast that the film finds its raison d’être, its vital possession.

And it is that, in a totally globalized and interconnected world, ‘Almas en torment de Inisherin’ he comes to defend physical closeness, face to face, introspection, the analysis of solitude. The tiny and simple life of two Irish friends who live on a secluded island at the hands of God is shaken by the artistic and musical sacrifice of one of them, which may recall ‘Whiplash’ and ‘The City of Stars’: La La Land’ by Damien Chazelle in terms of theme, but with a totally different approach. Still, McDonagh advocates building a message that addresses: the little things, the kind gestures, it’s what’s truly worthwhile and what transcends. As Bilbo Baggins would say: “There’s nothing wrong with celebrating a simple life”.

The importance of time and place

Another plus point for “Inisherin’s Banshees” is its brutal nature. Although it is a fictional place, it is mainly inspired by Inishmore, an island in Galway Bay in the west of Northern Ireland. The breathtaking landscapes, coupled with beautiful music by Carter Burwell, serve to lend an extraordinary and awe-inspiring personality to the film’s setting. The picturesque and intimate town may seem very welcoming, very exotic, but its remote geographical position and its few commercial or employment opportunities further increase the desperate feeling of existential emptiness that devastates the souls of all the inhabitants.. From the most cultured, like Colm and Siobhán, to the most unfortunate, like Pádraic or Dóminic, all personalities end up bored, drowning in a society without a future, peacefully boring. Although, on the next island a stone’s throw away, the height of the Irish Civil War in 1923 (just after the Irish War of Independence) could still be felt as a warlike backdrop, further emphasizing this fratricidal warfare both on a small and small on a large scale, and drawing a certain nostalgia that might seem autobiographical if we consider the Irish nationality of the director’s parents.

However, ‘Inisherin’s Banshee’ is far from any kind of self-made biopic, now so fashionable among Hollywood directors that he has even caught up with Steven Spielberg with his next ‘The Fabelmans’. But, while not recounting his life, McDonagh manages to brilliantly capture a perfect setting, very precise and concise, which recalls in the intentions ‘It was the hand of God’ by Paolo Sorrentino or, precisely, ‘Belfast’, by Kenneth Branagh, closer to this for obvious reasons. Regarding the theme, has many reminiscences of John Ford’s rural comic “The Quiet Man”, in regards to men unable to understand each other in any other way than by getting drunk or beating each other upalthough it also deals with social toughness in a similar way to “This is England”: a band of brutal men, crooks, simpletons, but at the same time honest, sincere, without an iota of villainy.

In summary, Martin McDonagh repeats his tragicomic formula that worked so well for him in ‘Three billboards in the suburbs’ but adding chiaroscuro tones also latent in his other two films. A true wonder, thoughtful and laughable, that sends us a necessary message and, at the same time, distances itself from the conventions that would secure us a better place in the prize race. One of the best films of the year.

Note: 8.

The best: The impressive Farrell-Gleeson acting duel, the Irish setting and the contradictory psychological subtext.

Worse: Some reactions of a specific character can be too exaggerated and this weighs down the final reflection of the film.