Explore the powerful connection between cinema, mental health and wellbeing with Illuminate, a strand that brings complex and often challenging human experiences to the screen. Through two compelling films exploring grief, addiction, and the possibility of forgiveness, Illuminate invites audiences to reflect and take part in conversations with filmmakers and others working in the field.
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ATONEMENT
ILLUMINATE
Reed Van Dyk | United States | 2026 | 118 mins | Fiction
WED 18 | ARC CINEMA | 18:15
SAT 21 | ARC CINEMA | 17:15
In the early days of the Iraq War, a U.S. Marine’s split-second decision devastates an Iraqi family. Years later, haunted by what happened, Lou D’Alessandro (Boyd Holbrook – Bikeriders, A Complete Unknown) seeks reconciliation with the family’s matriarch, Mariam (Hiam Abbass – Succession, Palestine ’36), with the help of journalist Michael Reid (Kenneth Branagh – A Haunting in Venice, Oppenheimer), who first reported on the incident.
Based on a true story, Atonement is a deeply intelligent and respectful exploration of trauma, responsibility and forgiveness.
Boyd Holbrook brings extraordinary restraint and vulnerability to Lou, while Hiam Abbass gives Mariam a performance of remarkable emotional depth. And then there is Kenneth Branagh, almost unrecognisable as the quietly determined journalist who brings these lives back together.
“This intimate and psychologically astute portrait of the human cost of U.S. imperial violence draws a precise focus from what cinema is built for: putting us in a character’s skin.” Indiewire
Illuminate is supported by
IF PIGEONS TURNED TO GOLD
(KDYBY SE HOLUBI PROMĚNILI VE ZLATO)
ILLUMINATE
Pepa Lubojacki | Czech Republic, Slovakia | 2026 | 110 mins | Subtitled | Documentary
FRI 13 | TRISKEL | 17:00
Pepa, the film’s writer and narrator, has “order” in her life, but her brother and two cousins David and Marco have taken to the street, where each faces addiction. A balancing act between love and contempt, care and destruction on film, that seeks to find whether family saves our life or – on the contrary – destroys it.
Can we resist the pull of family history, trauma and circumstance, and what does it take to find a different path?
If Pigeons Turned to Gold won the Best Documentary award at the 2026 Berlinale.
THE BIGGER PICTURE:
Breaking Inherited Patterns – Ways Out of Addiction
This is a conversation that goes beyond the film, inviting us to consider our own experiences and perspectives. Dr. John Goodwin discusses with addiction expert Dr. Peter Kelly and the filmmaker how and if one can resist this curse. Audience members are warmly invited to contribute their testimonies, reflections and questions.
Guests: Filmmaker Pepa Lubojacki, Dr. Peter Kelly (Associate Professor in Mental Health Nursing, Trinity College Dublin); Moderator: Dr. Johnny Goodwin (University College Cork Programme Director, BSc Mental Health Nursing).
Illuminate is supported by
