Iontas Theatre, MU at 8pm
KNEECAP
Director: Rich Peppiatt
105 minutes | UK, Ireland | 2024
Cast: Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, DJ Próvai, Michael Fassbender, Jessica Reynolds Introduced by Fionntán de Brún, Professor of Modern Irish at Maynooth University.
When teacher JJ, is roped in to act as Liam Óg’s Irish language interpreter during a Police interrogation, he happens upon Liam and childhood friend Naoise’s raw lyrical prose. JJ convinces both that they should set their words to music, and a hip-hop act like no other is born. Rapping in their native Irish, Kneecap become the unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save their mother tongue. Musically daring, anarchic and fun, the trio dodge police harassment, paramilitaries, and their own chaotic lifestyle to 'change the sound of Irish music forever.'
Please stick around after the screening for an informal discussion about the film.
Iontas Theatre, MU at 8pm
BLACK DOG (GOU ZHEN)
Director: Guan Hu
110 minutes | China | 2024
Cast: Eddie Peng, Tony Liya, Jia Zhangke China 2008.
Following his release from prison Lang returns to his hometown on the edge of the Gobi desert. The now desolate city is overrun with stray dogs, and Lang enlists in the team rounding them up as part of a pre-Beijing Olympics cleanup. When Lang captures the suspected rabid Black Dog, an expected bond forms between man and dog. Drawing on elements of Western, film noir and comedy, and shooting in widescreen, Hu’s unlikely tale of redemption is unique, intimate, yet cinematic. But it’s actor Peng’s and faithful companion Xin’s winning performances that make this 2024’s must-see crowd pleaser.
Please stick around after the screening for an informal discussion about the film.
Iontas Theatre, MU at 8pm
IO CAPITANO
Director: Matteo Garrone
121 mins | Italy, Belgium, France | 2023.
Cast: Seydou Sarr, Moustapha Fall, Issaka Sawagodo
Seydou and Moussa - teenage cousins from Senegal - dream of a life as professional musicians in Europe. They disobey their parents’ wishes and run away from home, aiming for Italy. But their journey towards the Mediterranean Ocean proves more arduous and tragic than they could possibly have imagined - a journey of unscrupulous human traffickers, perilous desert crossings and devastating obstacles. Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah, Dogman) directs this humanistic portrait of the migrant experience. This is a film of deep compassion, capturing the tragedy, turmoil and overriding sense of hope so many migrants experience.
Please stick around after the screening for an informal discussion about the film.
Next Wednesday's screening is All We Imagine As Light, our audience-choice screening.
Iontas Theatre, MU at 8pm
ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT
Director: Payal Kapadia
118 mins, France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, 2024, Cert: CLUB
Cast:Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam
Nurses Prabha and Anu share an apartment in Mumbai. Prabha’s husband moved abroad years previously and no longer contacts her. Despite that, she remains loyal to him and rejects the romantic advances of a friendly doctor working in her hospital. Outgoing Anu, meanwhile, is in a passionate relationship with Shiaz-a relationship she keeps secret as it’s socially taboo for her to date a Muslim.When Prabha and Anu travel to a coastal village to help a friend relocate, their experiences there spark moments of discovery and revelation.Payal Kapadia’s remarkable fiction debut is a poetic portrait of two women’s lives in contemporary India. This is a film that overflows with empathy and respect for its characters.
Iontas Theatre, MU at 4.30pm
BARRY LYNDON
On Saturday, 10 May 2025, Maynooth Film For All and the Arts and Minds Festival are marking the 50th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon with a screening in Maynooth, where a substantial portion of the film was shot, in and around Carton House. Based on William Thackery's 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon, it tells the story of 18th-cenury Irish adventurer Redmond Barry, who without prospects in Ireland, makes his way as a soldier in various armies of the Seven Years's War, as a gambler in European high society, and finally as a profligate gentleman in Britain. Come along and indulge yourself in the beauty of its innovative available-light cinematography, the beauty of the images often contrasting with the activities of its picaresque central character, played by Ryan O'Neal.
