Irish Film Institute -International Film Directory – Film Listing

Death of a Superhero

    • Director

      Ian Fitzgibbon

    • Credits

      Producers: Philipp Kreuzer, Michael Garland, Astrid Kahmke. Writer: Anthony McCarten

    • Principal Cast

      Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Andy Serkis, Aisling Loftus

  • Category

    Feature

This warm, funny and surprisingly uplifting story of terminally ill teenager 15-year-old Donald (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) has proved director Iain Fitzgibbon’s most acclaimed film to-date. Donald works through his feelings on his prognosis in sessions with therapist Dr.King (Andy Serkis) and in comic book-style drawings in which he is an invincible superhero fighting his mortal enemy. Despite his illness, Donald has the usual concerns of a teenage boy – sex, primarily. With the arrival of quirky new classmate Shelly (Aisling Loftus), this becomes secondary to the romance blossoming between them, and the problems attendant on first love. Refreshingly, Donald’s illness does not dominate the film; instead, it’s a starting point from which the film examines common teenage issues, given extra weight and urgency by the character’s condition.

Notes by Kevin Coyne

Awards: Special Jury Prize for Best Actress (Aisling Loftus), 10th Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2012.

97 minutes, Ireland/Germany, 2011, Colour

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