Dublin’s International Film Festival (DIFF) happens annually from the end of February to the beginning of March. It is hosted by The Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield with an extensive programme of features and shorts, and is open to the public with student tickets standing at €12 (but always check ticket availability in advance, they tend to sell out). There are a few films at the festival that already have arrangements for general release in cinemas, but also many independent and arthouse gems that probably won’t get released to theatres or streaming for a while. So this is a fantastic chance to take a week and watch some lovely movies in a lovely cinema, surrounded by fellow film buffs. I went through the programme of features to find the highlights; films that look interesting and unique, or where I’ve seen good reviews from other festivals, and compiled a list with my commentary to help you find films to watch this February.
Twig dir. Marian Quinn
DIFF’s opening night will screen this retelling of Sophocles’s Antigone set in Dublin. Starring Sade Malone as Twig, a young girl hopes to escape with her boyfriend (Donncha Tynan) from an inner city Dublin neighbourhood “rife with drugs” (Screen Daily, Jan 2024) and gang violence. However when her eldest brother dies, she embarks on a journey to find her other brother. DIFF describes Twig as “an angry yet sensitive response to the recent rise of violence in the streets of Ireland’s capital”. Twig seems like a painfully appropriate film to be shown at the opening night of DIFF; a blend of a classic story in a contemporary background, an “anti-war” epic with timeless messages.
https://diff.ie/movie/opening-night-gala-twig/
Orlando, My Political Biography, dir. Paul B. Preciado
I originally missed this film’s screening at Berlinale 2023 where it won Best Documentary, so I’m excited that Orlando has been brought to Dublin this year. Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando about man who transforms into a woman overnight, Preciado’s documentary about “the cage of identity” (NYT, 2024) is a piece of both literary criticism and film, with interviews and performances from around twenty-six non-binary and transgender individuals, all playing the role of Orlando as it shifts “from the individual to the collective”, calling upon “a multiplicity of selves.” My hopes for this film is that it will be a balance of humour and philosophy as it investigates gender and identity.
https://diff.ie/movie/orlando-my-political-biography/
Brendan Gleeson’s Farewell to Hughes’s, dir. Ciarán Ó Maonaigh
This Dublin documentary is an ode to the pub Hughes’s, a “mecca of traditional Irish music for more than 35 years” (DIFF), which closed down in 2021. Gleeson, star of The Banshees of Inisherin, is a fiddle player and was a regular at the bar. Through this documentary Gleeson and Maonaigh explore the legacy of Hughes’s and the mark it made on the lives of musicians, singers, lovers of music, and on Dublin itself. Check out this documentary if you want to see something touching and heartfelt about Dublin history.
https://diff.ie/movie/brendan-glessons-farewell-to-hughess/
The Teacher’s Lounge dir. Ilker Çatak
A German thriller with a Berlinale premiere, about a school teacher (Leonie Benesch) who investigates one of her students who has been accused of theft. An “insidious classroom drama” (DIFF), where “the school is a microcosm in which the outside world no longer exists and nothing remains private.” (Berlinale 2024). It seems to explore power dynamics and the feeling of powerlessness. I’ve seen reviewers give this film high ratings on Letterboxd already, I anticipate it being a big arthouse success.
https://diff.ie/movie/the-teachers-lounge/
La Chimera, dir. Alice Rohrwacher
Josh O’Connor plays an English archeologist in 1980s Tuscany, who befriends an older aristocratic woman (Isabella Rossellini) while pining for his lost love, and through his need to be reunited with her becomes involved in grave robbing. Rohrwacher’s previous film is Happy as Lazzaro, which is kind of a modernised Italian neorealism, but La Chimera looks like it is much more in the genre of magical realism and an adventure story. The Guardian describes it as a film “bustling and teeming with life, with characters fighting, singing, thieving and breaking the fourth wall.” I’m excited for its experimental form that is distinctly modern with a blend of different film stocks and aspect ratios, with a variety of atmospheres and scores. I think this film is going to be an absolute ball.
https://diff.ie/movie/la-chimera/
Stolen, dir. Karan Tejpal
With its premiere at Venice Film Festival, Stolen is a fast paced and “nail biting” thriller about two brothers who witness the kidnapping of a baby, and become “embroiled in a perilous investigation” (DIFF 2024). Tejpal comments in Variety that his film is about the “alarming number of child abductions in India,” and also inspired by events in 2017 where two men in India were wrongfully accused of kidnapping and lynched. It will comment on the phenomenon of child crimes, but also unjust and violent vigilantism in India.
Evil Does Not Exist dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi
From the director of Drive My Car, winner of the Oscar for Best International Film in 2022, this environmental drama is about a village in rural Japan that is threatened by the arrival of a company who wants to build a “glamping” site, for city dwellers to have “a comfortable escape to nature”. It becomes clear that this project will have negative repercussions on the environment and water supply of the villagers. It’s relevant to the worldwide climate crises, presented in a microcosm of a local issue. This is the film I am personally most excited for; it’s expected to be released in theatres after its run in festivals. Look out for it at the IFI if you miss it at DIFF.
https://diff.ie/movie/evil-does-not-exist/
Monster dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
Another Japanese film from a critically acclaimed director. Kore-eda is the director of Shoplifter and Brokers, but seems to be making a shift in plots of class issues in his new film; “a mother demands answers from the school faculty when her young son starts behaving strangely. What unfolds is a story that must be told several times before it can be fully understood.” Monster seems to investigate bullying, friendship and hope, and has been compared to classics such as Rashomon for looking at multiple conflicting perspectives and the confusion of truth. I expect Monster to also have a subsequent theatrical release.
https://diff.ie/movie/monster/
Drive-Away Dolls, dir. Ethan Coen
Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s new road comedy seems to be reminiscent of Bottoms if it were set in the nineties, with a star-studded cast (starring Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan, and featuring Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal and Beanie Feldstein). It’s about two friends who embark on a spontaneous road trip to Tallahassee, Florida after one breaks up with her girlfriend, running into trouble and crime on the way. Coen’s writing (and marriage) partner, Tricia Cooke, has identified as a lesbian since she was a teenager, and the two wanted to make sure that they weren’t making a queer film that was about “the pain of being gay” (Empire, 2024). If this film’s sense of humour is anything like The Big Lebowski but about sapphic teen girls, it’s sure to be a hit.
https://diff.ie/movie/drive-away-dolls/
DIFF 2024 will run from 22nd February to 2nd March.
WORDS: Coco Goran
Sources:
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/zurich-film-festival-india-karan-tejpal-1235748093/
https://www.berlinale.de/en/2023/programme/202314782.html
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/hamaguchi-ryusuke-evil-does-not-exist-north-america-1235692770/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/may/26/la-chimera-review-alice-rohrwacher-cannes
https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/ethan-coen-drive-away-dolls-exclusive/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/09/movies/orlando-my-political-biography-review.html
https://www.irishstar.com/culture/entertainment/brendan-gleeson-irish-pub-documentary-31965654
