The Banshees of Inisherin

11 November is Armistice Day, marking the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany at Compiegne, France, on 11 November 1918, later Veterans Day in the United States and Remembrance Day across the Commonwealth. Today pairs two films that think about war from the far side of its ending. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) films the First World War head on. The Banshees of Inisherin takes a more oblique date: April 1923, as the Irish Civil War nears its end, with the camera staying inside the daily life of a small island and the war present only as a pressure on how people behave. One puts war at the centre of the frame, the other leaves it off screen. Ninety-two years apart, both ask how people go on living with one another after the guns stop. The film also fills the archive's thinnest decade, the 2020s.

1923 年 4 月初，爱尔兰西海岸的虚构小岛 Inisherin，内战已接近尾声。拉琴的 Colm Doherty 和 Pádraic Súilleabháin 是一辈子的朋友，每天照例一起去酒馆。某一天，Colm 忽然不再理他。被追问时，Colm 给出的理由近乎无礼：Pádraic 太无趣，而他想把剩下的日子用来作曲、做些能被后人记住的事。Pádraic 接受不了，姐姐 Siobhán 与岛上少年 Dominic 试着调停，岛上的其他人各有各的心事。影片把这条裂缝一段段往深里推，后半段的走向不宜提前说破。

It premiered on 5 September 2022 at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, where Colin Farrell won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor and Martin McDonagh won Best Screenplay. It went on to nine nominations at the 95th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, though it won none. The 80th Golden Globes gave it three awards: Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Best Actor in that category, and Best Screenplay. The 76th BAFTAs gave it four from ten nominations, including Outstanding British Film, both supporting acting prizes and Best Original Screenplay. The National Board of Review named it one of the ten best films of 2022. Metacritic assigned it 87 out of 100 from 62 critics, indicating universal acclaim, and it has since been cited among the best films of the 2020s and of the century so far. It also reunited Farrell and Brendan Gleeson after McDonagh's debut In Bruges (2008).