Banshees of Inisherin, a tragic comedy by Martin McDonagh, have received nine Oscar nominations this year, including one for Best Original Screenplay. The three-act structure of the movie is strictly adhered to as it tells the tale of the falling out of two friends. But, the movie's screenplay by McDonagh is much more than that. Every scene in the movie advances the story or the characters somehow.
Set on a small and remote island in 1923, Colm, our protagonist suddenly decides that he doesn’t like his best friend of 12 years anymore. Padraic cannot seem to come to terms with the sudden change of behaviour in Colm. Driven by his loneliness and desperation, he continues to chase after him convinced that something else is wrong with Colm. When none of his attempts leads him anywhere, he confronts him when he is completely drunk and out of his senses.
However, their feud intensifies to a point where Colm threatens Padraic that from then onwards each time Padraic decides to trouble him, he will cut off one of his fingers. That is when Padraic’s sister, Siobhan begs him to leave Colm alone. Paying no attention to her request, he continues to trouble Colm.
This brings us to the growing action of the second act of the film, as Colm severs all his fingers over time leading to deep unrest and agitation in Padraic’s house. Siobhan decides to move to the mainland to pursue her dreams knowing that there is no future for her in Inisherin. When Padraic returns home completely torn after bidding her goodbye, discovers that his pet donkey Jenny had died after choking on one of Colm’s fingers. The colours of the frames shift to darker and cooler tones adding to the intensity of the climax of the film, as Padraic confronts Colm once again but this time he threatens to burn his house down the next day regardless of his being in the house or not.
In the third act, the resolution we see that Colm did survive the fire and was standing peacefully at the shore. He also apologizes to Padraic for Jenny’s death and suggests that now the two of them are even.
Although the film is running parallel to the Irish Civil War, there are no traces of war seen except some gunshots and rifles that are heard giving a talking point to the people of Inisherin. Towards the end, Colm says, “I haven’t heard a rifle fire from the mainland in a day or two. I think they’re coming to the end of it” To this Padraic replies that they’ll start it up again soon enough, suggesting that they have not reconciled and this may not be the end of it.
The film is intended to act as an allegory for the Irish Civil war. Every single character and scene symbolizes the civil war, Colm and Padraic’s friendship turned into rivalry depicting the opposing sides of the war. The deaths of Jenny and Dominic are collateral damage, they represent the people who incidentally lost their lives during the violence and chaos of the war. Siobhan moving to the mainland represents the people who flee to America during the war. The ambiguous end doesn’t seem like a hint that things will go back to normal, but it does imply that even when the war is done, there will still be many repercussions that must be dealt with.
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