EU and MEDIA Film News June 2025

Complicit: The Films of Michael Haneke, 6th - 29th June at Irish Film Institute, Dublin

'Few contemporary filmmakers have interrogated modern life with the unflinching precision, moral clarity, and formal rigour of Michael Haneke. Known for his stark visual style, chilling precision, and provocative storytelling, the Austrian director holds a mirror to the darker corners of modern society. The films in this season challenge the viewer to engage with Haneke’s cinematic world, a stark, sometimes brutal, yet intellectually rich landscape where emotional comfort is rare, and easy answers are refused.

Although often described as cold, Haneke’s work betrays a deep concern for the state of human relationships, for the erosion of empathy in the face of media saturation, social conformity, and historical amnesia. His cinema resists traditional narrative satisfaction and instead implicates the audience in the moral dilemmas of his characters, often forcing us to question our complicity as spectators.

From his early German-language works like Benny’s Video (1992), which explore the numbing effects of consumerism and media violence, to his internationally acclaimed masterpieces such as Funny Games (1997), Caché (2005), and The White Ribbon (2009), Haneke has relentlessly exposed the fragility of the veneer of civilisation. He narrowed his focus in Amour (2012), offering a devastating, yet tender portrait of love and decline in old age, earning him the Palme d’Or for the second time, and his only Academy Award (for Best Foreign Language Film).

Whether you’re encountering Haneke’s work for the first time or revisiting it anew, expect to be unsettled. That’s precisely the point.' Season Notes by David O’Mahony on IFI website.

When the Light Breaks | 6th - 10th June, Lighthouse Dublin / access>CINEMA clubs

access>CINEMA has released the Icelandic drama, When The Light Breaks in Irish cinemas with the support of MEDIA distribution funding. When the Light Breaks screens exclusively in Light House Cinema Dublin until 10th June. It will then screen across the access>CINEMA network of arts centres and film clubs in the coming months.

'Written and directed by Rúnar Rúnarsson, the film follows Una (Elín Hall) – a young art student – as she encounters love, friendship, sorrow and beauty in the aftermath of an unspeakable tragedy. The apparent death of a friend, Diddi, in a terrible road accident leaves Una and her other friends heartbroken. But Una is also keeping a secret that she is unable to share with those around her – she had been having a covert affair with Diddi. Una is further isolated following the arrival of Diddi’s girlfriend Klara (Katla Njálsdóttir), but both young women form an unlikely emotional bond as they grieve together. Elegantly directed by Rúnarsson and featuring beautiful music by the late composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, this is a remarkable and deeply moving drama with extraordinary performances from its young Icelandic cast.' (Sourced from access>CINEMA website).

Complicit: A Michael Haneke Retrospective | from 29th June, Triskel Cork

Curzon Film and Triskel Arts Centre presents an eight-film retrospective of Haneke’s films. Austrian filmmaker, Michael Haneke's challenging work has garnered two Palme d’Or awards and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for Amour.

Sunday 29th June to Wednesday 2nd July

• CODE UNKNOWN,
• FUNNY GAMES (the original)
• TIME OF THE WOLF
• THE PIANO TEACHER

27th to 30th July

• AMOUR
• BENNY’S VIDEO
• HAPPY END
• HIDDEN

Hot Milk | 24th June IFI and GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival

On 24th June, GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival and the Irish Film Institute will celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Marriage Referendum, with thanks to LGBT Ireland, with a very special event. The launch of the GAZE film festival’s 2025 programme will include a preview screening of Hot Milk in the IFI.

Hot Milk is a contemporary WLM (women who love women) story starring Irish actress and icon Fiona Shaw. Rebecca Lenkiewicz directs an adaptation of of Deborah Levy’s Booker Prize-nominated novel. Also starring Emma Mackey, Fiand Vicky Krieps, this is a vivid journey of self-discovery during a hot Spanish summer.

The day will also include an archive screening of short film Making History, which documents the momentous day of the referendum, and a first look at the GAZE 2025 Festival programme.

To a Land Unknown | rent on IFI@Home

Directed by Mahdi Fleifel. Chatila (Mahmood Bakri) and Reda (Aram Sabbah) are Palestinian cousins hopelessly stranded in Athens in Mahdi Fleifel’s compelling, tightly plotted, yet ultimately heart-breaking exploration of the migrant experience. Chatila, the more resourceful of the two, is saving every penny to realise his dream of opening a café in Germany, the ‘real Europe’, as he puts it, while trying to prevent his cousin from succumbing to a nascent drug addiction. They pair also act as guardians to Malik, a boy left in Greece without any parents, trying to get to his aunt in Italy. When circumstances conspire to make their position even more precarious, Chatila hatches an ambitious plan, which involves them posing as smugglers and taking hostages to get him and his best friend out of their hopeless environment before it is too late. Distributed by Wildcard Distribution in Ireland. Winner of Best Film, World Cinema Competition at Galway Film Fleadh 2024.