In late 2019, producer Graham Broadbent was traveling in Argentina when he received an email from Martin McDonagh, the writer-director with whom he had collaborated on three motion pictures at that point – In Bruges (2008), Seven Psychopaths (2012), and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017). “Have a read of this,” McDonagh wrote in his email.
On a flight from Buenos Aires to Patagonia, Broadbent was plunged into the story of THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN. The world that McDonagh created – is a fictional island off the west coast of Ireland where two friends become estranged, leading to disastrous, anarchic consequences. It had all of the writer-director trademarks: it was funny, sad, dark, and full of humanity –distinctly McDonagh.
“The Banshees of Inisherin is the story of an island, the small group of people on that island, and two friends who early on in the film are forced by the decision of one friend to go their separate ways,” says actor Colin Farrell (The Lobster, Minority Report), who plays Pádraic in the film. “The other friend finds that particularly hard to deal with.”
The story opens with walking happily around the island of Inisherin, where he lives with his sister, Siobhán. is a sweet, mild-mannered, happy-go-lucky guy: “A lot like the real Colin Farrell,” remarks McDonagh.
Every day, Pádraic and Colm meet at 2 pm to go for a drink in the only pub on the island. It’s a daily routine. On this particular day, however, everything changes. Colm, played by Brendan Gleeson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Braveheart, Gangs of New York) ignores Pádraic when he calls.
“Colm starts acting very strangely and starts avoiding Pádraic,” says Gleeson. “Colm doesn’t answer the door, which is how we start off the journey. That’s how it begins – with the shutting of a door against a good friend… for no apparent reason.”
Pádraic is initially surprised, then shocked, and eventually heartbroken. He’s also confused since Colm has given no particular reason for the breakup. These two men have been friends for, we presume, their whole lives.
Why did Colm torpedo his friendship with Pádraic, was it something that Pádraic said or did? Is Colm depressed? Should he respect Colm’s wishes and back off? Or should he try to change Colm’s mind or change himself? The plot is in place within the first six minutes of the movie.
“Pádraic can’t understand why Colm doesn’t want to be friends with him anymore and won’t accept it. It’s similar to the feelings you feel when you’ve been dumped in a relationship. You think, ‘So did you ever like me, or was I imagining that we were in love?’” says McDonagh. “It’s interesting to see who the audience identifies with. Can they understand the tough line that Colm, the breaker-upper, has taken, or do they identify with the nice person who is broken hearted?”
But Colm has his reasons. “He doesn’t want to waste his time anymore,” says McDonagh. “He wants to devote himself to artistic enterprises: music or thought. Pádraic is the fallout from that decision. Until this point things have been easy going. But Colm is older than Pádraic by 15 or 20 years. Colm identifies that time is precious and he sees Pádraic as a waste of time.”
Kerry Condon describes the characterization as a “smart way of playing with those feelings that everyone has in terms of a loving couple, heartbreak and rejection, but doing it with friends, so there is a comedy element to it.”
“Colm decides to embrace art and creativity as the most important thing in life and it leads to hellish consequences,” says Gleeson. “Pádraic chooses to be nice and he ends up with hellish consequences as well. The Irish Civil War was a tragedy – that’s the context here. Through examining it and trying to understand how things can get dragged out of shape, maybe we can face it down and not take that path. I hope the film will remind people that making nasty or harmful decisions has a lasting effect.”
“Do you devote yourself totally to life as an artist,” McDonagh continues, “and disregard friends or lovers or family? Is work the most important thing? Does it matter who gets hurt in the process? It’s a debate that isn’t answered by me or the film. I don’t think that you have to be a self- flagellating or dark or hateful person to do any kind of art, even dark art. But I definitely think the film explores that interesting conundrum.”
