It’s an excellent time to be a fan of Ireland’s prolific cultural output, especially when it comes to spellbinding stories on the big and small screens.
The Haunting Story of Martin McDonagh Banshee of Inishrin has received numerous awards and nominations, including a series of nominations at the Academy Awards, beautiful irish language film en calin sewin ,cool fellWho You can catch SBS On Demand now) with writer/directors Tom Berkeley and Ross White has been widely acclaimed, including a nomination for Best International Feature at the Oscars this week. taking home Golden Statuettes for Best Live Action Short Film, an irish goodbye and Dubliner Richard Banham received an Oscar for his work on the visual effects Avatar: The Way of Water (Banham won his first Oscar Avatar in 2010).
We’ve got a heap of good fads on SBS World Movies and SBS On Demand in the spirit of St Patrick’s Day this month, with some of our favorites highlighted below.
And if this short list leaves you with an insatiable appetite for Irish ingredients, why not join celebrity chef Catherine Fulvio on her world tour to chat about her favorite dishes in the Irish diaspora taste of home, or indulge with real estate porn great irish interiors,
guard
Oscar Nominee Brendan Gleeson Stars in This Weirdly Irish Black Comedy banshees John Michael, the prolific filmmaker brother of director McDonagh. It casts Gleeson as a curmudgeonly Garda (police) stationed beyond Connemara, who winds up badly in an unlikely team-up with Don Cheadle’s clueless FBI agent on a drug bust mission that predictably goes awry. goes. A firecracker pair of pitch-perfect actors that also stars Mark Strong, who has nailed the part of the British villain.
guard Right After will air on SBS World Movies on Friday, March 17 at 10.25pm my left leg 8:30 p.m., in a St. Patrick’s Day special double bill. both movies After that SBS will be available on demand for 30 days.
cool with horses
While we’re on the subject of Irish Oscar nominees, Gleeson banshees Co-lead and best supporting actor Barry Keoghan, one of Ireland’s finest rising stars, is a brutally evil presence in this regional Irish gangster drama. He plays Dympna, the matriarch of a Baad family who recruits the excellent Cosmo Jarvis bigoted ex-boxer with a hidden heart of gold, Arm, as a reluctant enforcer in this terrifying but brilliant film. One that cracks down on toxic masculinity. See also Jarvis’ magnetic raised by wolves Co-stars Niamh Elgar as Arm’s long-suffering ex Ursula, who is trying to save her horse-loving five-year-old son on the autism spectrum from the crazy, evil world of his father.
cool with horses Now streaming on SBS On Demand.
dry
No, not an Australian crime thriller, but instead a Dublin-set sobering Irish television dramedy from the makers of normal people, Roisin Gallagher (who popped up in decline) stars as former party-hard reprobate Shiva, who has cast aside his headstrong days in London to return home for his gran’s vacation with every intention of staying on the straight and narrow. But family has a way of inspiring us to swoon, and drink, as it does in this potty-mouthed dark comedy that occasionally leaves us bewildered, with a heartfelt portrait of the love shared by -occurs with spotted barbs.
eight-part drama dry Streaming Now sbs on demand,
Rosie
dry Director Paddy Breathnach also directed this deeply affecting film about a young mother (with bad sisters Sarah Greene in the title role) who, along with her husband (Moe Dunford), must find a new home for their four children when they are evicted by their landlord. Given the very real prospect of homelessness in the face of Dublin’s obscenely rising rents, the next day and a half is going to be a nail-biter. Working from an entertaining screenplay by author, playwright and screenwriter Roddy Doyle (commitments), with Green brilliant, it’s compelling stuff.
Rosie Now streaming on SBS On Demand.
hidden asset
If SBS, gives you mantra Seriously Best ScandinavianBut you’re also up for shaking things up a bit, so why not give this Irish version a whirl? commitments Star Angeline Ball plays Emer Berry, a Criminal Assets Bureau officer who follows her nose into a major cross-border mess when diamonds found during a drug bust in the Irish town of Shannon lead her to a bombing in Antwerp. lead into the plot and pair up with an odd couple. Wouter Hendrickx’s Belgian cop Christian. with gestures Bridge How they work together amid cultural differences is also an engrossing mystery packed with action.
six part series hidden asset Streaming Now sbs on demand,
taken down
If hidden asset Sounds like your kind of binge-watching night, you might want to pair it with a similar bleak crime drama in Dublin. Lynn Rafferty (who also pops up North Sea Connection) plays a grizzled detective tasked with uncovering the mysteries behind the brutal murder of a Nigerian-Irish teenager (Marlene Madange). The case leads her to an asylum seeker assistance center and a nearby brothel, both frequented by Abeni, Maga’s cleaner. keep an eye on Brendan Gleeson’s son and bad sisters Star Brian as a cynical cop.
six part series taken down Streaming Now sbs on demand,
redemption of a wicked
Fair warning of a cross-Celtic cultural reference, but when Edinburgh-born Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson sang, “I’m only happy when it rains,” she was apparently confronted by prodigal son Jimmy (a delicious Wasn’t thinking about the rain forecast. deadpan Aaron Monaghan) in this kooky film from writer/director Philip Doherty. A bad boy returns to his small-town daddy just in time for the eccentric patriarch to take out this mortal coil, as Jimmy and his boisterous brother Damian (Kieran Roche) read the will to discover that if they bury him So they will become void. It’s raining. Never-ending rain and lots of hilarious visual gags, including a statue of the Virgin Mary naturally coming to life and asking for a fag.
redemption of a wicked Now streaming on SBS On Demand.
a bump in the road
If you need a little cheer after all this death and mayhem, take a quick scooty across the border to Northern Ireland for all this baby bump drama. dairy girls Country. Bronagh Gallagher (who appeared briefly in that Netflix hit show) plays a 40-something, not-quite-retired party girl whose hijinks are brought to a screeching halt when she learns that she are pregnant, much to the shock of both him and his superior-behaved teenage daughter Ally (dating amber Lead Lola Pettycrew). They’re both fab, and it’s a real hoot.
a bump in the road Now streaming on SBS On Demand.