Synopsis

Following his Oscar-winning turn as J. Robert Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy delivers another powerhouse performance in this searing Irish drama based on the acclaimed novel by Claire Keegan. It’s Christmastime 1985, and Bill Furlong (Murphy) is a hard-working husband and father who is trying his best — like everyone in his small town — to keep his head down and provide for his family. But there are cruel secrets lurking in the local convent that this sensitive soul can’t bear to ignore.

This captivating and subdued thriller follows Bill as he wrestles with staying silent to protect his family even as he feels compelled to speak out in the face of wrongdoing. The film is bolstered by its exquisite performances, both from Emily Watson in her Berlin Film Festival-winning portrayal of the convent’s icy mother superior and from the exquisitely restrained Murphy, whose every glance and grimace expresses multitudes of emotion. Small Things Like These is an elegant account of courage and compassion.

Synopsis

On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across her uncle’s dead body. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family in filmmaker Rungano Nyoni’s surreal and vibrant reckoning with the lies we tell ourselves.

Blending dark comedy with poetic realism, Nyoni critiques the traditional expectation to bury pain with the dead as a family of women refuses to feign grief. Featuring a striking visual style and haunting sound design, the film culminates in a defiant protest against silence and denial, suggesting that memory and truth will always endure.

Synopsis

From Oscar-nominated director Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence) comes a poignant and deeply human musical about a family that survived the end of the world. Twenty-five years after environmental collapse left the Earth uninhabitable, Mother (Tilda Swinton), Father (Michael Shannon) and Son (George McKay) are confined to their palatial bunker, where they struggle to maintain hope and a sense of normalcy by clinging to the rituals of daily life — until the arrival of a stranger, Girl, upends their happy routine.

As tensions rise, their seemingly idyllic existence starts to crumble, with long-repressed feelings of remorse and resentment threatening to destroy the family’s delicate balance. But their reckoning with difficult truths also points to a different way forward, one based on acceptance, love, and a capacity for change. An urgent and unforgettable cautionary tale.

Synopsis

Up-and-coming Irish writer Edward is just starting to taste success: Seemingly out of the blue, his novel is becoming popular with young readers in the U.S. But he struggles to balance increasing press commitments and organizing a book tour with caring for his beloved mother, who recently suffered a stroke. Edward feels torn between his love and care for his mother and his desire to embark on this new and exciting phase of his life as a writer. When his three closest friends, also itching for some excitement in their lives, decide to run off to a Spanish Pride celebration weekend, they leave their own aging mothers with Edward. With four stubborn individuals to look after and increasing pressure from his upcoming book tour, Edward must find a way to reconcile all four mothers and follow his passion in this delightful and heartfelt dramedy.

Synopsis

They’ve been defanged — literally — by pop culture. But in Irish folklore, fairies (also known as the sidhe, or, in this film, simply “them”) are a real and serious threat. For the followup to her 2018 feature debut The Devil’s Doorway, writer-director Aislinn Clarke dives deep into the sinister side of these supernatural creatures for a terrifying folk-horror film that’s steeped in ancient legend and presented with a deep sense of pride in Irish language and tradition.

Siubhán— known to her friends as “Shoo” — is a home care nurse struggling with mixed emotions after her estranged mother dies by suicide. Pieg is her elderly client, who lives so far out in the country that the only directions to her cottage are to “turn at the fairy tree.” Pieg’s home is covered in wards and charms, and she insists that Shoo adopt her superstitious ways as well. As it turns out, there’s a reason for that: Many years ago, Pieg made a promise to the sidhe, and they’ve returned to collect.