Cillian Murphy-Starrer ‘Small Things Like These’ To Open Berlinale 2024

Cillian Murphy movie Small Things Like These will open this year’s Berlinale.

The film reveals truths about Ireland’s Magdalen laundries – horrific asylums run by Roman Catholic institutions from the 1820s until 1996, ostensibly to reform “fallen young women.” It takes place over Christmas in 1985, when devoted father and coal merchant Bill Furlong (Murphy) discovers startling secrets kept by the convent in his town, along with some shocking truths of his own.

The movie reunites director Tim Mielants (WIL, De Patrick, The Responder) with Murphy, who previously worked together on series three of Peaky Blinders. It will kick off the Berlinale on February 15.

Small Things Like These is based on the book by the award-winning Irish writer Claire Keegan, who also wrote Foster, which was adapted into the Academy Award-nominated Irish language film An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl). 

“With Small Things Like These, Tim Mielants tells the story of a man of few words, with wide open eyes, as clear as the skies of Ireland,” said Berlinale Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian. “In The Quiet Girl we already had sense of Claire Keegan’s skill in portraying small, apparently simple characters and making them unforgettable; here her delicate, rich and yet down-to-earth writing finds a great interpreter in Cillian Murphy.”

The Berlinale runs from February 15 to 24. Earlier this week, it unveiled full panorama, forum and generation lineups. The competition jury is being helmed by Lupita Nyong’o.