Cinema: Captioned Screenings at the Irish Film Institute for March

Upcoming open captioned screenings on at the Irish Film Institute this month. For booking information and more details, visit ifi.ie.

Banel & Adama

Open captioned screenings Friday 15 March at 3pm and Tuesday 19 March at 6.20pm

Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. The young couple live in a remote village in northern Senegal and for them, nothing else in the world exists. However, their perfect everlasting love seems on a collision course with their family’s traditions. Adama is pressured to take the position of village chief, but Banel and Adama have different plans – that is, until something in the air shifts. A drought strikes and the cattle begin to die, changing everything. Award-winning filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s breath taking and lyrical debut feature follows the fated lovers in their quest to carve a life for themselves beyond the expectations of others. The film premiered in Competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, making Sy only the second Black woman in the history of the festival to do so.

My Friend Lanre

Open captioned screenings Saturday 16 March at 2.30pm and Monday 18 March at 7pm

Irish filmmaker Leo Regan draws on decades of footage to portray the complex life of his friend, photographer Lanre Fehintola. Their friendship began as photography students in London in the early ‘90s. In 1998 Leo directed and Lanre featured in Don’t Get High On Your Own Supply when Lanre, working on a book about drug addicts in his hometown of Bradford, had himself become hooked on heroin. Cold Turkey (2001) documented Lanre’s attempt to break his addiction. My Friend Lanre presents an intensely intimate portrait of his friend Lanre during his final months and weeks, as he faces a cancer diagnosis and his ultimate adventure, his own death.

Described by Louis Theroux as “intimate, raw, beautiful”, this funny, devastating, and bravely personal film is a testament to deep friendship and to one person’s incredible life and work.

Monster

Open captioned screenings Wednesday 20 March at 6pm and Thursday 21 March at 1pm

All is not what it seems in Kore-eda’s powerful tale of classroom bullying, and the ensuing moral and ethical dilemmas, scored by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto (see Opus: Ryuichi Sakamoto, also screening this month). Minato (Soya Kurokawa), an intense, solitary 10-year-old boy, is being raised by single mother Saori (Sakura Ando), who suspects that he is being bullied by one of his teachers, but her attempts to investigate the matter are met by a wall of obfuscation by the steely-eyed principal, Makiko (Yuko Tanaka), who is herself grieving the death of a grandchild. The cover-up at the school appears to involve Yori (Hinata Hiiragi), Minato’s classmate, a dreamer who often comes to class covered in bruises. Working from someone else’s script for the first time since Maborosi, his debut film, Kore-eda adopts a Rashomon-like approach, replaying scenes from a variety of perspectives, adding new layers of meaning and resonance.

The Delinquents

Open captioned screenings Friday 22 March at 3.40pm and Wednesday 27 March at 7.40pm

Moran (Daniel Elias), a disaffected Buenos Aires bank employee, steals several hundred thousand dollars and blackmails his colleague Ramon (Esteban Bigliardi) into hiding the money until he has served his prison sentence – no more than three and a half years, he anticipates – after which time they will split it, never having to work again. From this intriguing premise, Argentinian writer-director Rodrigo Moreno’s highly original and effortlessly engaging film proceeds to upend the conventions of the crime drama, charting a wayward and eccentric path, mapping the characters’ intertwined narratives as they separately become romantically involved with a pair of sisters, Norma (Margarita Molfino) and Morna (Cecilia Rainero). Morano’s digressive, elliptical approach allows him to expand the story in surprising and satisfying ways, more than justifying the generous running time.

Baltimore

Open captioned screenings Saturday 23 March at 3.10pm and Monday 25 March at 8.45pm

Born into a life of wealth and privilege, English debutante Rose Dugdale defies her family’s expectations for a good marriage and goes instead to Oxford, where the seeds of her political radicalisation are sown. Amongst the political turmoil of the 1970s, her sympathy towards the IRA’s conflict culminates in her leading an armed and violent raid on Russborough House on April 26th, 1974 in which nineteen masterpieces were stolen. Baltimore is based on the real events surrounding the raid, and the days following when Rose is in hiding in a remote cottage.

Molloy and Lawlor reveal the ferocity and complexity of Rose Dugdale in a film that is masterful in its construction – with deft criss-crossing of timelines, an ominous, unsettling score, and a tightly-knit cast led by a mesmerising Imogen Poots.

Robot Dreams

Open captioned screenings Sunday 24 March at 4.20pm and Thursday 28 March at 6.15pm

This Oscar-nominated, dialogue-free feature animation comes from the director of the riveting Blancanieves. For this tender animation, Berger turns to 1980s New York and the friendship between a lonely dog and a robot. The city is without humans but busy with animals such as monkeys, pigs, and penguins, whose anthropomorphic qualities allow them to lead active, adventurous lives. When Dog and Robot spend a day at the beach, a combination of sight gags and their visual responses make for a fun day out, till Robot gets waterlogged and Dog has to return home alone. Their friendship continues through dreams as they wait out the winter, aiming to reunite again. Adapted from Sara Varon’s graphic novel, and a tribute to New York, an edgy place of burger bars and roller skating in the Reagan era. Avoiding any bigger AI questions, the film explores themes of loneliness and relationships, and the part played by memory in keeping them alive.

Wild Strawberries: The Old Oak

Open captioned screenings Wednesday 27 March at 11am

The impact of housing Syrian refugees in a disenfranchised north of England town is deftly depicted by veteran filmmaker Ken Loach, and his long-term collaborator, Paul Laverty. Such is the level of economic neglect that when a coachload of Syrians arrive, several locals are vocal in their objection. World-weary publican, TJ, objects to the dissenters gathering in his pub and instead sees a way for the community to demonstrate a positive response. Although offering no answers, the film, as with Jimmy’s Hall, shows how local spaces can be constructively utilised to bring together disparate views in the search for a way forward.

The Lavender Hill Mob (70th Anniversary)
Open captioned screenings Sunday 31 March at 3.45pm and Tuesday 2 April at 6.30pm.

Probably the zenith of the Ealing comedies, The Lavender Hill Mob has certainly never been surpassed for sheer inventive merriment. Alec Guinness stars as the mild-mannered bank employee who, after 20 years of faithful service, blithely decides to steal one million pounds worth of gold bullion. He enlists Stanley Holloway, a paperweight manufacturer and a bit of a sculptor, and together they plan the perfect robbery. Both actors are matched by a wonderful cast which includes Sid James and Alfie Bass as the professional crooks of the gang, and a very young Audrey Hepburn in her first screen role.

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.

Images courtesy of the IFI, MUBI, Well Go USA Media and Best Friend Forever.