Concrete Keys is an experimental feature that creates a poetic parallel universe, at once odd and familiar, to evoke the tragic and poignantly comic structures of self-preservation in an ever-changing world. It is peopled by a cast of institutionalised beings, locked into routine, enacting innocently eccentric private rituals while isolated in their own worlds. Interweaving elements of puppetry and animation, there is documentary truth in the film’s primary location, the Cork Tax Office, a seven-floor brutalist building, which became a temporary home to a wide community of creatives for a decade before demolition. At once humorous and haunting, Concrete Keys holds up a mirror to the subconscious of society and its forgotten ghosts. 

Natasha Bourke is an interdisciplinary artist of Irish/Dutch descent. Concrete Keys, which was supported by the Arts Council, is her first feature-length film. 

Alice Butler (aemi) will host a post-screening conversation with Natasha Bourke. 

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn