Panida to screen Oscar-nominated Banshees of Inisherin

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

Much has been of the vagaries and mysteries of romantic love. Lovers have been spurned, seduced, forbidden and unrequited across the centuries and forms of artistic expression, but precious few turn the lens on friendship. 

The Banshees of Inisherin may be the best depiction on film of how deep the loss of a friend’s love can cut, and the emotional wreckage it can wreak.   

Nominated for nine Oscars, the 2022 film starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson centers on two pals living on a tiny, rocky, rain-soaked island off the coast of Ireland in 1923. The time period is important, as it coincides with the final phase of the Irish Civil War. As that conflict wages across the water, a smaller though just as bitter split is taking place between Pádraic (Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson). 

For reasons that are as amorphous as they are firm, Colm — the elder, wiser and more circumspect of the two — has woken up one morning and decided that he’s no longer friends with Pádraic, who plays his part as a good-natured but dim good old boy.

Colm tells him that their longtime relationship is over in a brutally matter-of-fact way, which baffles as much as wounds Pádraic, whose hurt is so profound that it upends his life. After going through several stages of grief, Pádraic determines to win back his erstwhile best buddy with the help (and sometimes hindrance) of his sister Siobhán (Kerry Condon) and tragic island oddball kid Dominic (Barry Keoghan).

Though as Pádraic ramps up his efforts at reconciliation, Colm digs his heels in even deeper until events spiral out of control in writer-director Martin McDonagh’s quietly brilliant film, which reminds us that friendships — perhaps more than love affairs — are the most important relationships in our lives. 

The film will screen Saturday, March 21 at the Panida Theater (300 N. First Ave., in downtown Sandpoint). Doors open at 6 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $9.50 for adults and $6.50 for students and seniors, available at the door or panida.org.