This week saw the casts of two vastly different films walk the red carpet at the 2019 Dublin International Film Festival, heralding the festival’s transition into what is arguably its most feverishly anticipated period.
Writer and director Stephen Merchant, currently debuting his rags-to-riches wrestling biopic – Fighting with My Family – appeared in cheerful mood as the sole representative on the red carpet of what is expected to be his most successful foray into feature directing.
Meanwhile, introducing a much darker work to the big screen at the festival were Director Ian Fitzgibbon, Pat Shortt and a host of other Irish actors, including the likes of Moe Dunford and Eoin Geoghegan, with their mordant comedy Dark Lies the Island, adapted from a short-story collection of Kevin Barry’s.
Facilitating, and embracing, the collision of entirely different cultural forces is what diverse film festivals should be all about. Judging by the wildly divergent subject matter, character portrayals, and worldviews of both films that premiered at the Light House cinema (Fighting with My Family) and Cineworld (Dark Lies The Island) last night, this ethos is undoubtedly one that is shared by the organisers of Ireland’s flagship film event.
Speaking to The University Times on the uncharacteristic nature of his latest film given his background in creating observational comedies such as The Office and Extras, Merchant explained: “I didn’t know anything about wrestling. It wasn’t wrestling that was the connective tissue for me. It was this family and this very human story. They’ve got dreams, they happened to be about wrestling, but they could have been about anything really. There was just so much humour and emotion in their story, that was what inspired me to make a film about it.”
Despite the film’s content marking a radical breakaway from the sorts of sitcoms we are used to seeing him bring to life, Merchant’s trademark brand of humour and masterful sensibility for putting his finger on what can make audiences cringe uncomfortably in one moment, and belly laugh in the next, has by no means faded. Elements of Fighting with My Family show that Merchant’s insatiable appetite for presenting us with the awkward, tense, yet hilarious, parts of life has not dimmed in the slightest.
On the other hand, Ian Fitzgibbon’s eagerly awaited Dark Lies The Island plunges us into the murky depths of psychological torment and the sinister side of life in the neglected crevices of parochial Ireland.
Speaking to The University Times on his motivations for making this film, Fitzgibbon spoke of his passion for translating Kevin Barry’s writing into the language of cinema by collaborating with the writer himself: “It was always a very rewarding process and he [Kevin Barry] is thrilled with what the film turned out to be. I think he feels it’s a fair reflection of what was going on in his head.”
Pat Shortt’s starring role in the film also reveals a growing tendency for the traditionally lighthearted entertainer to be drawn towards projects that deal with the macabre and unsettling.
Speaking on his reasons for this fascination with art that aims to reflect some of the latent menace of Irish life, Shortt said: “My own work on stage is comedy but it’s indigenously Irish, it’s Irish characters. There is a dark side to Ireland and I think Kevin Barry writes that really, really well. I do a lot of comedy so sometimes it’s nice to go the other way. Aside from that, it’s no more than just great writing that draws me to it”
Both films give a flavour of what the Dublin International Film Festival is all about. However, they only combine to capture a microcosm of the extravaganza of cinema the festival has to offer.
