Film Review: Twig is a modern retelling of the Greek tragedy of Antigone

Sade Malone in Twig

• Twig 
• ★★★☆☆
• Cinema release

Set during ‘a civil war on the lawless streets of inner-city Dublin’, Twig (15A) is a modern retelling of the Greek tragedy of Antigone.

In the wake of a gangland feud, crime boss Leon (Brían F O’Byrne) issues an edict that the brothers responsible are now persona non grata, this as a warning to anyone else who might try to challenge his authority.

But Leon has reckoned without the indomitable Twig (Sade Malone), a young and supposedly powerless woman who refuses to bend the knee and instead sets about doing the right thing by her brothers.

Written and directed by Marian Quinn, Twig is occasionally too literal as it attempts to graft Greek tragedy onto a contemporary Irish setting — the dialogue, especially, is a little on the nose as the characters stomp around declaring their intentions.

And yet the blend of old and new is also strikingly effective: the sight of quasi-fascistic armed guards enforcing an autocrat’s diktats is a chillingly timeless one.

Its textual extravagances aside, Twig is an ambitious, challenging film that shows us a Dublin we would prefer not to imagine, with Sade Malone quietly compelling as a woman who refuses to be cowed by the illegitimate rule of a self-righteous tyrant.