Joshua Oppenheimer is no stranger to apocalyptic images, having brought to life the brutal reality of Indonesian mass murder in documentaries The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. For his first narrative feature, The End, Oppenheimer goes the unexpected route with a post-apocalyptic musical with an A-list ensemble led by Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon, and NEON has just dropped the first trailer for one of this awards season’s dark horses.
Described as a “cautionary tale”, The End follows a family living underground twenty-five years after an environmental collapse has left the planet uninhabitable. While they try to stay sane and hopeful by sticking to daily routines, their lives are upended by the arrival of a mysterious girl. They also occasionally burst into song, which, I guess who can blame them?
The film was directed and co-written by Oppenheimer along with Rasmus Heisterberg. Also in the cast are George MacKay, Moses Ingram, Bronagh Gallagher, Tim McInnerny, and Lennie James.
Our writer Cortland Jacoby caught The End at Middleburg recently and was not a fan, calling it a “vanity project” that doesn’t work. Reviews have been mixed overall since it premiered at Telluride earlier in the year.
NEON will release The End in theaters on December 6th.
