It was only his second time taking part in a film premiere in his native city, and Cillian Murphy looked delighted to be back in Cork on Saturday for the first official screening on this side of the Atlantic of Steve.
“I’m a bit emotional to be bringing the film here. It means a great deal to me,” said Murphy while introducing Steve to an audience at the Arc cinema that included the actor’s friends and family, as well as Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
The 49-year-old Oscar-winner attended the first European screening of the hardhitting tale in the company of director Tim Mielants, writer Max Porter, and co-star Jay Lycurgo.
Steve had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival a few days previously, and it was shown in Cork as part of the Sounds From A Safe Harbour festival Murphy is involved in organising.
Cillian Murphy in a scene from Steve. Picture: Robert Viglasky/Netflix
The North Main Street cinema might not have had the red-carpet shenanigans of the Canadian event, but dozens of local fans gathered anyway at the barriers outside, and all six screens at the venue were packed out for the simultaneous showing of the film.
Murphy’s only other previous attendance at a premiere event in the city was at Mahon Point in 2006 for Ken Loach’s West Cork-set The Wind That Shakes The Barley.
Immediately after the screening, the principals strolled down the quays to Cork Opera House where they took part in a public discussion hosted by broadcaster John Kelly.
At the discussion of the film Steve at Cork Opera House were John Kelly, Cillian Murphy, Tim Mielants, Jay Lycurgo and Max Porter. Picture: Bríd O’Donovan.
Steve was in part an adaptation of the book Shy by English writer Porter, a longterm collaborator with the Cork actor, and also a co-curator on the Safe Harbour festival. However, while the novel is told from the perspective of a struggling teenager in a residential school for troubled boys, the film version focuses on the titular headteacher, a caring figure played by Murphy.
Onstage at the Opera House, the Ballintemple native spoke of how his preparation for the role was helped by the fact that his parents and grandfather had been involved in the education sphere.
“Both my mum and my dad are retired teachers, educators. My dad was also a cigire [school inspector] so like, I grew up around that. And I kind of knew what it was like to live with the after-shock of teaching 35 adolescents and then coming home to look after your own adolescents,” said Murphy.
Co-star Lycurgo – also to appear alongside Murphy in forthcoming Peaky Blinders film The Immortal Man – was another person who brought personal experience to bear on the film, revealing that his father works in alternative education units in London.
Jay Lycurgo and Simbiatu Ajikawo (Little Simz) in Steve.
Screenwriter Porter, meanwhile, spoke of his longterm interest in social care. Earlier this year, the author had led a workshop in Cork with women of the Dillon’s Cross Project, which provides educational opportunities for the female relatives of prisoners and ex-prisoners in the city.
And though the presence of Cork’s most famous son had obviously helped sell out the Opera House event, it was Porter who received the biggest applause of the evening when he spoke of the difficulty of making and promoting the film as the situation in Gaza was unfolding.
“Almost every single hour of every single day of that entire almost 800 days, a child has been murdered in Palestine,” said Porter.
Steve’s screening and discussion formed part of an expanded film strand at the tenth edition of a biennial festival previously focused on music. Organisers of the 2025 edition of the event reported an increase in crowds at venues across the city, with sold out concerts by the likes of Beth Orton, Villagers, and Efterklang.
Steve will be released in cinemas on September 18 before landing on Netflix on October 3.