Where to start? More than two decades after the environmental collapse, an eccentric family flies the flag for the human race from deep within their salt mine bunker. A former industrialist (Michael Shannon) busies himself collaborating on a book with his son (George MacKay), a young man who knows no world beyond the bunker, and who may be the last of his kind… Meanwhile, the boy’s mother (Tilda Swinton) devotes herself to the preservation of the priceless art on their walls. But when a young Black woman (Moses Ingram) turns up out of the blue, the family’s carefully manicured secrets and lies crack open.
Director Joshua Oppenheimer made one of the most ambitious and acclaimed nonfiction films, The Act of Killing (2012), an account of the genocide in Indonesia in which he famously persuaded the killers to reenact their crimes on camera in gaudy cinematic vignettes. So it makes a certain sense that his first dramatic feature should be an apocalyptic drama that is also a melancholy musical (music by Josh Schmidt and Marius de Vries). It’s a big swing.
Michael Shannon, Tilda Swinton, Moses Ingram, George MacKay, Tim McInnerny
Denmark/Germany/Ireland/
Italy/UK/Sweden
2024
English
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Jeff Deutchman, Tom Quinn, Emily Thomas, Elissa Federoff, Efe Çakarel, Michael Weber, Jason Ropell, John Keville, Macdara Kelleher, Andrea Romeo, Alberto Fanni, Joakim Rang Strand, Marcus Clausen, Waël Kabbani, Greg Moga, David Unger, Sandra Whipham, Charlotte Cook, Jens von Bahr, Sam Mendes, Ramin Bahrani, James Marsh, Werner Herzog, Raffaele Fabrizio, Caterina Fabrizio, Alessandro Del Vigna, Dana Høegh, Christian Bruun, Melinda Quintin, Michael Quintin, Spencer Myers, Amy Gardner, Jean Doumanian, Ilya Katsnelson, Kaarle Aho, Celine Haddad, Greg Martin
Producer
Signe Byrge Sørensen, Joshua Oppenheimer, Tilda Swinton, Viola Fügen, Conor Barry, Flaminio Zadra, Tracy O’Riordan, Ann Lundberg
Screenwriter
Rasmus Heisterberg, Joshua Oppenheimer
Cinematography
Mikhail Krichman
Editor
Niels Pagh Andersen
Production Design
Jette Lehmann
Original Music
Josh Schmidt, Marius de Vries
Joshua Oppenheimer
Joshua Oppenheimer is an American filmmaker who works in both documentary and fiction. He holds a BA from Harvard and a PhD from Central St. Martins College of Arts and Design in London. His groundbreaking film The Act of Killing (2012) received the BAFTA for Best Documentary and was nominated for an Academy Award. Its companion piece, The Look of Silence (2014), won the Sundance Film Festival’s Special Jury Award and received an Academy Award nomination.
Filmography: The Act of Killing (2012); The Look of Silence (2014)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The English Patient
In the first of a new Film Studies series exploring literary adaptations, director Anthony Minghella tackles Michael Ondatje's challenging, poetic WWII novel about an enigmatic, badly burnt patient with a tragic past. Introduced by Patricia Gruben.
Sirât
A desperate father (Sergi Lopez) searchers for his missing daughter through the spiritual wasteland of the Moroccan desert. An unforgettable sensory powerhouse, Sîrat will have you riveted and rattled for hours after the end credits have rolled.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, and Special Jury Prize Winner, Sundance, 2025, this exposé shot by a Russian primary teacher shows how the Putin propaganda machine works to militarize children.
2026 Oscar® Shorts (Documentary)
Don't come to the program of Oscar®-nominated documentary shorts for escapism. But let's talk about the Canadian contender, Perfectly a Strangeness, featuring an abandoned observatory and three donkeys. More of this, please.