There are worse ways to earn a living than promoting movies. Nobody is forcing you down a mine. Nobody is making you breathe toxic fumes. But in the axis between the autumn festival run and awards season, one can muster some sympathy for stars such as Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons.

In late August they premiered Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia at Venice International Film Festival. They were immediately bundled into a plane and flown 9,000km to Telluride, in Colorado, where they sat on directors’ chairs and chatted as if they’d just called around the corner for a cup of sugar.

Now, after further rounds of promotional hoopla, they have made it to London Film Festival and a furiously rapid conversation with your correspondent.

[ Bugonia review: Mid-ranking Yorgosia that just about justifies its many indulgencesOpens in new window ]

These days such press spots too often involve gimmicky questions from gimmicky people. You won’t get that from the Irish Times. But you will get the usual tedious wrapping ourselves in the flag. Bugonia, an ecothriller marinated in the most inventive absurdity, is the sixth film the Greek director has made with the Irish-founded production house Element Pictures. Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe, founders of the company, are again on board as producers. Stone, as she did on the Oscar-winning Poor Things, joins them in that role. Robbie Ryan, the Dublin camera bonce, is again back as cinematographer.

“Yeah. Ed and Andrew and Robbie!” Stone drawls. “So many Irish! Yeah, Ed and Andrew? I didn’t know, until recently, their history. They have known each other most of their lives.