The End

The debut fiction film of the two-time Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer is to no one’s surprise a messy, profoundly penetrating, and politically undermining post-apocalyptic musical, starring Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon. Deep below the earth's surface, within the protective embrace of an abandoned salt mine, a family of the once great elite spends the days in a luxurious shelter reminiscent of a grand estate, trying to forget the catastrophe that led to their seeking refuge there – as well as their own culpability in the whole situation. When a survivor from the world up above unexpectedly finds herself among them, the convictions they all hold dear, and in particular the ones of their young son who was born there in the aftermath of the disaster, will slip from their grasp like a handful of salt. By creating a film that refuses to submit to any type of categorization, Oppenheimer delivers yet another versatile work of art that gleams with the brilliance of a contemporary cinematic classic.