After a 10-year hiatus from filmmaking, Oscar-nominated director Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence) returns with his first narrative feature film, The End. The film follows the story of a family living in a bunker in a post-apocalyptic world.
The End had its world premiere at the 51st Telluride Film Festival. The film then screened at other festivals including the 49th Toronto International Film Festival, the 72nd San Sebastian Film Festival, and the 37th Virginia Film Festival.
Starring in the film are Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton), Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals, Revolutionary Road), George MacKay (1917), and Moses Ingram (Lady in the Lake, The Queen’s Gambit).
Release Date
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, The End opens in select US theaters on December 6, 2024.
Synopsis
From Academy Award-nominated director Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence) comes a poignant and deeply human musical about a family that survived the end of the world.
Twenty-five years after environmental collapse left the Earth uninhabitable, Mother, Father and Son are confined to their palatial bunker, where they struggle to maintain hope and a sense of normalcy by clinging to the rituals of daily life—until the arrival of a stranger, Girl, upends their happy routine. Son, a naïve twenty-something who has never seen the outside world, is fascinated by the newcomer, and suddenly the delicate bonds of blind optimism that have held this wealthy clan together begin to fray. As tensions rise, their seemingly idyllic existence starts to crumble, with long-repressed feelings of remorse and resentment threatening to destroy the family’s delicate balance. But their reckoning with difficult truths also points to a different way forward, one based on acceptance, love, and a capacity for change.
“The End explores the logical conclusion of this self-deception: a family holed up in a bunker years after everyone else has perished, enjoying every comfort, a last flicker of human consciousness surrounded by the artifacts of a vanished species, desperately telling themselves that they are happy and good, and thus all is well,” says director Oppenheimer on his film. “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear. I want my films to be mirrors. I try to invite, cajole, sometimes even force viewers to acknowledge their most urgent truths. This inevitably requires confronting our self-deceptions, exploring their sometimes terrible consequences. Our ability to lie to ourselves is probably the tragic flaw that makes us human. And it will surely be the one that destroys our species—unless we stop and find the courage to recognize our lies for what they are.”
Reviews
David Ehrlich in an IndieWire review gave the film a rating of A-, writing, “The End” doesn’t offer the instant gratification of a typical musical, but this film burrows into your head like it’s digging a doomsday behind your eyes because it so powerfully underscores how our sensitivities can be every bit as dementedly inhumane as our indifference.”
Caleb Hammond in a The Film Stage review also gave the film an A-, writing, “While [recent eat the rich satires] function as empty calories, a way for audience laughter to act as an absolution of responsibility, The End seeks to probe something deeper: to examine the evil in all man, then offer up hope and a path for redemption.”
Official Trailer
Watch the official trailer for The End.