Under a heavy grey sky, actor Cillian Murphy set the stage at the Berlin Film Festival with an evocative portrayal of a man grappling with personal trauma and societal repression in “Small Things Like These.” The film, which opened the festival on Thursday, places Murphy as a father and coal merchant who is haunted by past events and faces the moral dilemma of rescuing a girl from the maltreatment of a “Magdalene laundry,” administered by nuns.
In his role, Murphy embodies a man gliding through the 1980s in Catholic Ireland, wrestling with the weight of past miseries and the injustices of his own time. “Small Things Like These,” directed by Belgian filmmaker Tim Mielants, marks the first time since 2017 that an Irish film has competed for the festival’s top honor, the Golden Bear. Murphy’s character is overwhelmed by guilt and turmoil over the knowledge of a local girl’s confinement and enforced labor in one of Ireland’s notorious Magdalene laundries, institutions that imprisoned women construed as morally deviant, frequently for becoming pregnant out of wedlock.
These asylums, the last of which shuttered its doors in 1996, exacted untold suffering on their inmates, with forced labor in near-slavery conditions under the aegis of religious orders. This coercion took place while society turned a blind eye, engulfed by its own remorse. Murphy shared insights with reporters, reflecting on the collective trauma that he believes still lingers among those who remember this painful period. He relayed the poignant irony underlying the narrative: a Christian individual attempting a compassionate act within a malfunctioning Christian society.
Murphy, who has earned an Oscar nod for his upcoming role in “Oppenheimer,” is supported by an adept cast, featuring Clare Dunne, Eileen Walsh, and Emily Watson. Walsh, in the role of Murphy’s spouse, deftly encapsulates the pervasive despair with a single potent line on the necessity of overlooking bleak realities to persevere in such a society.
The film unveils how a seemingly distant past remains ever-present: the dimly lit streets of Wexford town hark back to the ambiance of the 1950s, yet it is the sound of The Human League on the radio that ground the audience in the year 1985. This stylistic choice serves as a stark reminder that the shadows of history are not as detached as they may seem.
Mielants’ direction and the team’s performance in ‘Small Things Like These’ had festival-goers immersed in the story’s emotional depths. Murphy stood out for his intense performance of a man freighted with depression, prompting viewers to recognize how despair can be as much an instigator of brave deeds as strength.
The film navigates through various layers of emotion, contrasting the lead character’s internal struggles with the broader, systemic ills of the era and location. The narrative arc lets audiences contemplate the countless complexities of doing what is morally right in face of personal and societal pressures.
With the Berlinale serving as a prestigious platform for international cinema, “Small Things Like These” hopes to not only compete for accolades but also to cast a light on a chapter of Irish history that resonates with contemporary struggles for justice and recognition worldwide. As the festival progresses, audiences and critics alike will ponder the potent themes within the movie, and its potential impact on societal conversations about culpability, redemption, and historical reconciliation.
“Small Things Like These” is an important, thought-provoking film that connects personal narratives to collective memories, urging an honest confrontation with the past’s uncomfortable truths. The Berlin Film Festival, through this compelling opener, once again affirms that cinema has the power to explore and reflect upon the most difficult aspects of human history, and in doing so, it can foster understanding and empathy.
