The oeuvre of filmmaker and scholar Joshua Oppenheimer isn’t massive, but two out of his three documentaries are pioneering works in the cinema landscape. THE ACT OF KILLING (2012) and THE LOOK OF SILENCE (2014) are both about the systematic mass murders under Suharto in Indonesia (1965-1966) that claimed around 2-3 million victims. In THE ACT OF KILLING, Oppenheimer has the perpetrators reenact their deeds while THE LOOK OF SILENCE is from the perspective of the victims. Both films offer striking studies into human cruelty and trauma. With THE END, Oppenheimer has made his first feature film and he selected a genre that is currently popular: the musical. However, the basic theme remains familiar. It’s about the human psyche under extreme conditions, this time in the middle of a climate apocalypse.

THE END begins with a quote from T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets“ and a tracking shot through a cavernous landscape into the luxurious bunker of a group of survivors. The small, capricious community consists of a business family, a family friend, a doctor, and a butler, and adheres to a strict routine: maintaining the gallery of masterpieces, writing biographies, gardening, swimming laps, and conducting disaster drills. But the semblance of normalcy is shaken up when a young woman appears who claims to be the last survivor from “above.“ Her arrival plunges the residents into moral dilemmas. The film is thrillingly staged and set in the surreal bunker world with impressive visuals. The film's weak point lies in its choice of genre. The songs are rather standard and add little.

Clarissa Lempp (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy