Joshua Oppenheimer, two-time nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, will attend the 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival to present his latest film The End, starring Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon. The film will be screened at the closing ceremony of the 65th TIFF on Sunday November 10th, 2024, at Olympion.
The End is a post-Apocalyptic musical revolving around the end of the world, which seems to have sprang out of the genre’s golden years. A resourceful and unconventional film by Joshua Oppenheimer that outlines a daring variation of some of the themes that have been touched upon by the filmmaker in his masterful documentaries The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014).
Twenty-five years after an environmental disaster that has transformed Earth into a non-habitable planet, a family composed of the Mother, the Father and the Son lives secluded in a luxurious bunker, where they strive to preserve hope and a sense of normality, keeping up with the rituals of the daily life, until the arrival of an unknown young woman, the Girl, subverts this routine. The Son, a naive 20-year-old who has never seen the outside world, is intrigued by this change. All of a sudden, the fragile bonds of unquestioning optimism that bind this privileged group together are starting to fade away. As tensions rise, this seemingly idyllic co-existence is starting to fall apart, while repressed guilt and oppressed malcontent threaten the family’s balance. At the same time, its members are faced up against a series of bitter truths that pave the way for a different road leading forward, a road based on acceptance, love and the ability to change.
Our weakness as human beings to assume the responsibility of our actions and accept the burden of consequences. The turning of a blind eye towards the spectrum of a more-than-evident disaster by the lifelong privileged. The myths and the illusions of an entire society and a worldview that has turned greediness into a way of life and existence. All the above are unraveled in a sarcastic mix of black comedy, quirky sci-fi and psychological thriller with political hues and ecological echoes.
A film tackling urgent issues, starring Oscar® nominated Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon, as well as George MacKay and Moses Ingram. The screenplay was written by Joshua Oppenheimer and Rasmus Heisterberg, while the film’s score bears the signature of Joshua Schmidt (music) and Joshua Oppenheimer (lyrics).
*The movie will hit the Greek theaters distributed by Weird Wave on December 12th, 2024.
