FRÉWAKA

With titles like The Quiet Girl (2022) and Small Things Like These (2024), it’s clear that Irish cinema is thriving. Amid the arthouse blockbusters, however, the undercurrent of smaller genre films is often overlooked. Fréwaka shows that Irish horror cinema is also alive and kicking. After enduring a personal tragedy, caregiver Shoo decides to leave her pregnant partner behind to take care of an elderly woman in the countryside. As folk horror conventions dictate, however, something isn’t quite right with the local community. On top of her paranoia about her neighbors, the old woman is consumed by superstitions about the mythical na sídhe, a supernatural people who are said to have once abducted her.

Delving into Irish history and culture, Fréwaka is a surreal atmospheric piece with both feet firmly on the ground. Slowly, Shoo slips into her patient’s delusions and the wounds of the past. Elegant scares are interspersed here with a tactful approach to the postcolonial traumas that continue to plague the country. The focus on the Irish language further underscores a commitment to grounding the film in a political project that seeks healing through magical stories for the many horrors of reality.