David Freyne, the writer-director of the acclaimed new Irish horror The Cured, has said that his film was part-fuelled by the recession in Ireland.
The award-winning film, which receives its Irish premiere at the Audi Dublin International Film Festival on Sunday, is set in Ireland as the population deals with the aftermath of a virus that turned people into zombies.
With the cure successful in 75 per cent of infection cases, friends Conor (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) and Senan (Sam Keeley) are released from quarantine and must face their families, and what they did while infected.
Abbie (Ellen Page), Senan's widowed sister-in-law, takes him into her home - but will society be so accommodating?
"When I started writing it, it was when we had the big recession in Ireland and Europe," Freyne recounted in an interview with US entertainment trade publication The Hollywood Reporter.
"And there was [sic] lots of protests and it was when we had the rise of populist politicians there like [Nigel] Farage and [Geert] Wilders who were exploiting the fear around them.
"Again, we never imagined that [the election of US President] Trump would happen, but he was a symptom of what was happening then: he exploits the fear around him and he exploits the anger around him for his own ends. And that's why Tom [Vaughan-Lawlor's character], in the script, the antagonist, is a politician who essentially does that..."
When asked by The Hollywood Reporter, for his own thoughts on inclusivity, Freyne replied: "I don't have a solution to anything, but I think if there is any kind of message [from the film] it's that you can't let fear rule your lives, or your politics. You have to be welcoming, and be human, which I think is something we're forgetting at the moment in America, in Europe, everywhere at the moment.
"We're treating people like a contagion and we're not treating them like humans anymore. That's what's happening with asylum seekers in Europe and refugees and here with 'build a wall' and all that grotesque stuff.
"So yeah, I think it's just that we have to start treating everyone like humans again, which we've forgotten."
The Cured goes on release in Irish cinemas on April 20.
The Audi Dublin International Film Festival runs until March 4.
