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
La venue de l'avenir
Four cousins are tapped to investigate an abandoned house that is their joint inheritance. As they explore, they learn their story of their ancestor Adele (Suzanne Lindon) and her foray into Paris in the age of Impressionism.
L'Étranger
Recreating 1940s Algeria in vivid, high contrast black and white cinematography, L'Etranger is erotic, enigmatic and brutal in equal measures, a masterful screen version of Albert Camus's insoluble classic of existential alienation.
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
The Chronology of Water
Kristen Stewart's fearless directorial debut is based on the best-selling memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch (Imogen Poots), a chronicle of her abusive childhood, traumatized adulthood, and escapes through swimming, drugs, sex, and ultimately writing.
Vancouver Opera Presents Dangerous Liaisons
Vancouver Opera General Director Tom Wright and Director of Engagement Ashley Daniel Foot introduce a special screening of Stephen Fears' Academy Award-winning sex and revenge comedy, based on the 1792 novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.