I’m not sure if it’s just that I hit the day five morning crash of MIFF but I struggled to keep my eyes open in this Irish-made, quietly languid documentary about a Ukrainian health sanatorium that seems stuck in the 80s.
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I only got to see three films at this year‘s Melbourne Irish Film Festival but they were all really solid. I really appreciate festival director Enda Murray‘s choice of films (and his endearingly bumbling introductions and Q&As).
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Such a relief! I thought this latest English language feature by Yorgos Lanthimos might have his incisive gaze diminished by Hollywood capitalism but it is on par with some of his early gems, albeit with a more inspiring, less bleak ending.
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This is a lovely story about friendships that can form across class divides and provide safety and salvation for women experiencing coercive control.
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This deeply affecting Irish documentary delves into the history of the institutionalisation of pregnant women from the 1920s to the 90s by various Irish institutions including the Mother and Baby Homes and Magdalene Laundries.
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Music is a powerful tool for resistance and Rich Peppiatt’s delightfully frenetic retelling of the birth of northern Irish hip-hop band Kneecap shows the power and the vulnerability of sticking it to the Man.
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Sinéad O’Connor was ahead of her time, unapologetically outspoken for all the things we believed but didn’t have the courage to say.
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Colm Bairéad has given us a surprisingly unsentimental look at what shapes us as children in this Gaelic language exploration of a summer in the life of one neglected child.
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The Irish Film Festival Australia is streaming online; a glorious chance to drink Guinness, cook Irish food and immerse ourselves in Irish culture and stories. Emer Reynolds’ warm-hearted hagiography of Thin Lizzy front man Phil Lynott is a welcome elevation of his music and the difficulties of being “the only black boy in Dublin in the 50s” rather than the tragic ignominy of his death.
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