DUBLIN - Shot between the Aran and Achill Islands, the film "Gli Spiriti dell'Isola", in competition at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, confirms the close link between Ireland and the seventh art.
This is the film "The Banshees of Inisherin", deeply Irish also from the point of view of the cast and the direction: the main stars are Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan;
the director, Martin McDonagh, was also born in Great Britain but of Irish parents and is very attached to his family's places.
The film, which will have its world premiere in Venice on 5 September and in Italian cinemas in February 2023, is McDonagh's first feature film;
the plot takes place in Ireland in iconic places, and as a backdrop to the
The enigmatic story of the troubled friendship between Colm (Brendan Gleeson) and Padraic (Colin Farrell) during the Irish Civil War are two extraordinary islands: Inishmore and Achill Island.
The first is the largest in the Aran archipelago and the second, which boasts the primacy of the largest Irish island, is part of County Mayo.
Both are located off the west coast and are very popular for their landscape, with spectacular views such as the karst plateau of the Burren or the turquoise water of Keem Beach, a bay west of Achill Island, where some scenes were filmed.
In the film we find some symbolic monuments of the island of Inishmore such as the prehistoric fort of DúnAonghasa, one of the most impressive barbarian monuments in the world, built between the Bronze and Iron Ages on a cliff 100 meters high.
On Achill Island, however, Carrickkildavnet Castle, located in the south-east part, is the home of a legendary figure, the queen of pirates Grace O'Malley, who lived in the sixteenth century.
The two locations are places of great importance for Gaelic culture and language, also present in the original language version of the film.
Thanks to its wonderful nature and rich historical and cultural heritage, Ireland has often lent its beauty to films and TV series, as enthusiasts of tourism linked to film sites know well.
Many of the scenes of "Game of Thrones" were shot, in fact, in Northern Ireland, also home to a cult series like "Derry Girls", set in Londonderry.
The list is long but deserves to be mentioned, for the "Star Wars" saga, the sharp Atlantic verticality of Skellig Michael which with its ancient and incredible monastic settlement has been immortalized in some key sequences of the last chapters.
And, again, the Rock of Cashel, whose origins date back to the fourth century, which is the backdrop to the film "The Last Duel" by Ridley Scott:
For more information: irlanda.com/film