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film · Monday 7 September 2026 · 8:00pm 
Sanatorium - Irish Oscar Entry - Triskel Cinema Cork
At Triskel Christchurch · Tobin Street, Cork City, Co. Cork
At Triskel Christchurch · Tobin Street, Cork City, Co. Cork
Sanatorium is an Irish documentary directed by Galway-born filmmaker Gar O’Rourke, and it carries some weight coming into this run at Triskel Christchurch: it is Ireland’s Official Entry for the 2026 Academy Awards in the International Feature Film category. Filmed on location in Ukraine while the war continues nearby, it is not a grim dispatch from the front - it is a patient, darkly comic portrait of ordinary people looking for love and healing in the most unlikely of places. Screen Daily called it “a strikingly cinematic, affectionately droll study of Ukrainian resilience in the face of war.” If you enjoy documentary filmmaking that does not lean on sentiment or easy resolution, this is a rare chance to see it on the big screen before awards season takes hold.
The film is set at the Kuyalnik Sanatorium on the shores of Odesa - a crumbling Soviet-era health facility where a dwindling number of guests arrive each summer in search of mud treatments and electroshock therapies, hoping for cures, company, and something that might still pass for happiness. It runs 91 minutes, is in Ukrainian with subtitles, and carries a 15A cert. The production is an Irish / Ukrainian / French co-production; Gar O’Rourke directs and the film is produced by IFTA-winning Ken Wardrop and Andrew Freedman of Venom Films. It won at the Galway Film Fleadh before its Oscar selection. The Sunday 7 September screening is at 14:00 (afternoon); Monday through Wednesday screenings run at 18:00.
Triskel Christchurch is on Tobin Street in Cork City centre, a short walk from Patrick Street. Parnell Place Bus Station is nearby and serves Bus Eireann and Expressway routes from Dublin, Limerick, Waterford, and across the county. Cork Kent railway station is about 20 minutes on foot or a short taxi across the river. If driving, the Lavitt’s Quay and Parnell Place multi-storeys are the closest car parks; on-street parking in the immediate area is limited.
The English Market is a five-minute walk from Triskel and worth an hour before or after the film. There is more to see in Cork and across Co. Cork.
Heading to Triskel Christchurch in Cork? Cork has plenty more to see. Read the Cork area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.