A reverse-chronology heist movie in the Irish language, Aontas is more a tale of personal tragedy than a thriller. But it’s worth spending time with.
Three unlikely women rob a rural Irish Credit Union. A backwards chronology unravels what went wrong.
A kind of a heist movie, but where the heist isn’t the climax of the film – in fact, it’s the opening. Instead of building up to how the hold-up unfolds, the story explores – in reverse chronology – events which answer the question ‘why is this happening?’ rather than ‘how did we get here?’.
The three women at the centre – Mairéad (Carrie Crowley), her sister Cáit (Brid Brennan), and Sheila (Eva-Jane Gaffney) – for different reasons find themselves donning balaclavas and attempting to steal money from the local Credit Union in a small Irish town. Jumping back a few days each time, Aontas gradually reveals how each woman came to be in this situation, mostly through the eyes of Mairéad, and the scope of the tragedy becomes clear.
During the post-screening Q&A, director Damian McCann acknowledged that the reverse chronology of the majority of the film has undoubtedly led audiences and critics to mention Memento or even Tenet, two films which also play with chronology. Tone-wise, Aontas is much closer to Memento, with a quiet unravelling of the truth as the viewer learns more. In fact the backwards exposition means that the pieces slot into place in a much more memorable way.
It’s refreshing to see a film featuring a trio of female actors in the three lead roles, with two of them being in their sixties – and also to hear the Irish language in a cinema. For UK and Ireland viewers, Aontas is part-funded by BBC Films; it’s the type of thing that appears on BBC Four on a Saturday evening so if you don’t get the opportunity to see this in on a cinema screen, then I would seek it out however you can.