Éist Liom (listen to me)

Éist liom is the final part of our trio of Irish-language shorts, exploring the classic operatic story of Carmen. Our intention is to bring this epic story of violence into the present. As directors, our focus is on expressing the pain that lies behind anger and aggression. The characters are lonely, dysfunctional people who are trapped in a story that they can’t control.

The performance style we have developed as a company is idiosyncratic, coming from a post-dramatic theatre tradition. We emphasise simplicity, allowing the audience to project their feelings onto the characters.

We created a strange subterranean world in a Dublin theatre, a place where we could imaginatively leap between a music video, documentary-style performance, and poetic text.
Taking inspiration from Dogville, Beyonce’s Lemon, and Ivo Van Hove’s hybrid theatre and film projects, we immersed the actors in a rigorous rehearsal process.

Like all our previous work, we started by writing an album of songs based on the characters in Carmen. The broken Irish poetry of the characters and the lyrics of the songs combine to create a portrait of people stuck in a dynamic that is destined to end in tragedy. John Cutler’s editing style lends a musical rhythm to the collage story-telling.

In Éist liom, we are foregrounding Carmen, the complicated woman who is the victim of violence. She has a strong will to be free, even if it kills her.

The music we wrote is central to the meaning of the film. The songs reveal the emotions that the characters can’t express. We wanted to make our own version of opera in Irish using pop music. We want to say something about how people misunderstand each other, and don’t listen. We want to say something about toxic relationships and violence in our own way that we hope connects with the audience.

From Shaun Dunne: “The dialogue is long and detailed, like an aria. The murder scene is the core narrative element that we are pulled between structurally. This is a reference to the fact that this story has been told a million times before, everything has already happened. Much in the same way that domestic violence and femicide continues to permeate in society ad nauseam”

As directors, we are thrilled to bring our suite of films in collaboration with Shaun to a climactic end. We are passionate about making films that subvert ideas of contemporary Irish language and culture.