It has a macabre plot featuring violence, mutilation and despair, but that has not stopped The Banshees of Inisherin being used as a global advertisement for visiting Ireland.
A tourism campaign based on the film has taken off and transformed its dark story into a glowing promotion for Ireland’s west coast islands.
Inis Mór (Inishmore) and Achill Island, the islands where Martin McDonagh’s black comedy was filmed, are marketing the locations, and a Tourism Ireland video about the making of the film has drawn more than 6m views. The hope is that visitors will come for the landscapes rather than the toxic relationships portrayed in the film.
The tourism spin-off is expected to grow if the film, which won screenplay and acting prizes at Venice, continues racking up awards. Eight Golden Globe nominations have made it a frontrunner for next year’s Globes and Oscars.
“We want to capitalise on the positive exposure for Ireland, bringing the beautiful scenery of the Wild Atlantic Way to the attention of people in some of our main markets and inspiring them to come and visit,” said Niall Gibbons, chief executive of Tourism Ireland.
Versions of the agency’s behind-the-scenes video of the film have accumulated 6.1m views on YouTube, with 5.8 million of viewers watching to the end. The ad has had about 200,000 views on Twitter and Instagram. Made with the cooperation of the film’s production company, Searchlight Pictures, it cost €1,230 to make and had a marketing budget of €200,000.
The video includes interviews with Martin McDonagh, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, who laud the landscape as an integral part of the film. “It allows us to keep the beauty of the west of Ireland to the fore and to showcase our authentic homegrown talent,” said Gibbons.
Travel and lifestyle magazines have run articles on the shooting of the film on Achill Island in County Mayo and Inis Mór, the largest of the Aran Islands, in County Galway. GQ interviewed the production designer.
Achill’s tourism website features a “Banshees of Inisherin locations trail” which includes a map and pictures of beauty spots, lakes and buildings that appear in the film. “Tour guides can be provided for coach parties to give a first-hand account of the locations and the stories surrounding the filming,” it says.
The Aran Island ferries website does not gloss over the film’s acrid tone, citing the Guardian review’s description of “wounded male feelings” and a “dance of death between aggression and self-harm”.
Tourism officers will need to wait until next summer to assess the campaign’s impact.
Other locations around Ireland have successfully turned on-screen mayhem into tourism boons. Game of Thrones fans make pilgrimages to forests and castles in Northern Ireland. Curracloe beach in County Wexford boasts of its appearance in Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster Saving Private Ryan, which opens with the slaughter of GIs in the D-day landings.
