Guggi      Director: Ian Thuillier Cert: 12AStarring: Guggi, Bono, Gavin Friday, Dave-iD Busaras, Gerard Mannix Flynn, Jim Sheridan Running Time: 1 hr 18 minsBono-bashing may be a popular and peculiar Irish pastime – albeit less popular than scrambling for U2 tickets whenever the same rock star announces Irish dates – but there can be no doubting the sincerity of his feelings for Guggi.The Dublin-born artist Derek Rowen, christened Guggi by his U2 pal, emerged from the city’s late-1970s postpunk scene as a founding member of the avant-garde band The Virgin Prunes. He and Bono have been inseparable friends since Guggi was four and Bono was three. Alongside Gavin Friday, a cool kid they noticed carrying vinyls as Glasnevin teenagers, they helped form a vanguard of artists and musicians who transformed the city’s cultural landscape. Guggi performed as a musician from 1976 until 1984, when he left the stage to pursue a life devoted to visual art.Working across drawing, painting and sculpture, he has subsequently exhibited in Paris, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles and New York. His idiosyncratic practice is best described as the “medium of bowl”. Whether sketching on scraps of brown paper or casting in bronze, Guggi finds beauty and profundity in the familiar forms of domestic objects such as pots, jugs and vessels.The Wicklow-based film-maker Ian Thuillier, who has previously profiled Gavin Friday and Rory Gallagher, filmed Guggi over many years. A near-fatal aneurysm frames both the documentary and Guggi’s urgent output. The film’s centrepiece involves a convivial group art session featuring Bono, Guggi and Friday. Sadly, archival footage of the Prunes and the postpunk scene is scarce. Context does the heavy lifting. The artists Sean Scully and Tia Thuy-Nguyen explain Guggi’s artistic significance. And Guggi himself makes for decent company.Both the subject and the director allude to the shadow of paternal abuse, but Guggi is too contemplative and generous to dwell in the darkness. One lovely moment features the artist returning to his childhood home. He leaps athletically on to the garden post. But only after politely asking the current residents.In cinemas from Friday, August 28th