Cinema: Accessible Screenings at the Irish Film Institute in January

Upcoming open captioned screenings on at the Irish Film Institute this month.

All of Us Strangers – Sunday, January 28 at 1pm and Tuesday, January 30 at 6.20pm.

All Of Us Strangers is a beautiful, mysterious, deeply moving meditation on identity, loneliness, love, happiness, and loss that navigates its terrain on an even more profound level. Screenwriter Adam (Andew Scott, giving a career-best performance) lives an isolated life in a soulless tower block. His work on a project vaguely inspired by his relationship with his deceased parents (Claire Foy and an unrecognisable Jamie Bell) is interrupted by his encounters with neighbour Harry (Paul Mescal). As memory, reality, and imagination intertwine, becoming difficult to separate from each other, Adam seeks a stable place of comfort and warmth.

The Holdovers – Tuesday, January 23 at 8pm and Thursday, January 25 at 3.15pm

The year is 1971; Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), Professor of Ancient Civilisations at an elite boarding school, has been saddled with the ignominious task of playing caretaker to a bunch of students that are unable to return home over the Christmas holidays. A cantankerous, ornery eccentric, Hunham resolves that the students suffer along with him, forcing them to study the next year’s curriculum ahead of time. Angus (Dominic Sessa), a bright but belligerent 15-year-old, becomes his chief antagonist as the other boys find an escape route; Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the school’s recently bereaved cook, casts a baleful eye from the sidelines over Paul’s escalating battle of wills with the belligerent teen.

Wild Strawberries: Chevalier – Wednesday, January 31 at 11.00am

This stylish and highly watchable biopic concerns the composer, Joseph Bologne, son of an enslaved African woman and white plantation owner in 18th-Century France. Determined to succeed despite prejudice, Bologne pushes himself to excel at fencing, composing and violin and is awarded the title ‘Chevalier’, but prejudice remains. With some anachronistic details beloved of Bridgerton fans, the film goes on to explore the musician’s forbidden romance and ultimately his facing up to the reality of discrimination, in a sumptuous, captivating depiction.

The Irish Film Institute provide regular audio description and open captioning for selected screenings. For more information about accessible screenings visit www.ifi.ie/accessible.