Does great art require suffering? It's the kind of question that usually gets asked in black-and-white interviews about novelists. Pain in the Hole asks it about hot sauce.
A new short film by Northern Irish filmmaker Rab McPhee, Pain in the Hole puts our founder Tim McCarthy at the centre of a surreal documentary-comedy about heat, flavour, and the thrill of a deliberate burn. Part kitchen documentary, part confession booth, part fever dream.
Rab brings the eye for the strange; Tim brings the chillies and the philosophy. Somewhere between a science lab and a stand-up set, the two of them work out — sort of — whether you have to put yourself through it to make something worth tasting.
Funnier and weirder than a hot sauce film has any right to be. Worth a watch whether you're a chilli head or not.
Watch it
Big thanks to Rab for the vision and the patience. We don't think this is the last bit of strange we make together.
