Ireland is coming to the big screen in Thailand this October, as the Embassy of Ireland hosts the eighth edition of its annual Irish Film Festival. For the first time in a while, the programme plays in two cities: Bangkok and Chiang Mai, with five contemporary Irish films touring both venues.
The line-up leans into Ireland's distinctive storytelling streak. Headline picks include Báite (known in English as The Drowned), a 2025 Irish-language film noir directed by Ruán Magan and adapted from Sheena Lambert's 2015 novel The Lake — a murder mystery set by the water. Also screening is A Quiet Love, a documentary by award-winning filmmaker Garry Keane and the first Irish feature made entirely in Irish Sign Language. It offers an intimate portrait of resilience and daily life in the deaf community, and comes with both English and Thai subtitles.
Rounding out the selection are Small Things Like These, the acclaimed drama led by Cillian Murphy, plus Spilt Milk and Girls & Boys — a mix of drama and lighter fare that gives a rounded picture of modern Irish cinema. Every film is subtitled in English and Thai, so it works for expats, locals and curious travellers alike.
In Bangkok, everything happens at House Samyan in the Samyan Mitrtown mall: Small Things Like These kicks things off on 8 October at 7.30pm, followed by Báite on 9 October, a Spilt Milk and Girls & Boys double bill on 10 October, and A Quiet Love closing on 11 October. Chiang Mai gets its turn from 23 to 25 October at SFX Cinema in the Maya shopping centre, with the same five titles spread across four days.
Best of all, admission is completely free. There's a catch in the system, though: no advance bookings. Tickets are capped at two per person and handed out at the cinema box office one hour before each screening, first come, first served. Popular evening slots will fill quickly, so arriving early — and having a coffee plan for the wait — is the smart move.
For anyone travelling in Thailand in October, the festival is a rare excuse to pair a temple-and-street-food trip with a dose of Irish culture, and the venues are easy to reach in both cities. Whether you're an Irish expat feeling homesick or a film lover keen to catch titles that rarely screen in Southeast Asia, it's a cheap (read: free) and genuinely good night out.
