Joshua Oppenheimer‘s new film, The End, is a post-apocalyptic musical starring Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, and George MacKay as a family living in a bunker bankrolled by a former oilman played by Shannon. The genre-bending high-concept film feels like it’s looking directly into the souls of the modern earthly inhabitants, watching and burning a hole through us. While the film is set after it’s too late for humanity, Oppenheimer doesn’t think we’re quite there yet, which is why The End exists in the first place. The director told us in a recent interview:
The film is a cautionary tale, and like all cautionary tales, it’s created and told as an act of hope, in the belief that there are still people who can heed its warning, that there’s still time to heed the warning.
“It may be too late for the family in the film, but it is not too late for the audience,” added Oppenheimer. “We’re heading toward the abyss, and if we don’t have the courage and the conviction, then it might not be possible to change course, [and] have no choice but to continue right over the precipice.”
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Oppenheimer is, like star Michael Shannon, full of hope for humanity, but he sees darkness not just on the horizon, but coming from within. The movie itself isn’t just about the potential end; it’s about the way we all behave that brings us to the brink. The End is an excellent reminder that we’re all living in bunkers of our own design in some way. It tackles ideas of accountability and self-deception, and might even provide human beings with a road map for a different path.
Joshua Oppenheimer: “We Are All Complicit… We Are Implicated”
The better path depends on empathy, though, which is what Oppenheimer is trying to do in The End and indeed all his films. “What motivates me to film anyone, whether it’s a fictional character or a documentary subject, is the longing to know what it is like to be that person,” explained Oppenheimer, who also directed the acclaimed documentary The Act of Killing. “You can only do that through empathy. Pointing fingers and feeling superior is never going to get you close.” He continued:
”
I also feel that we are all complicit. It’s not just this rich family that lives in a bunker
. [When] we read about 1,000 people drowning in the Mediterranean Sea, trying to escape conditions of misery that we knowingly put them in and profit from — because that’s what allows us to get cheap energy, cheap clothing, cheap consumer goods, cheap food — and we give ourselves the permission to turn away and move on to something more comfortable, we put ourselves in a bunker.”
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“We are in a bunker. When we pass someone in the road who needs our help, we put ourselves in the bunker,” added Oppenheimer, who doesn’t shy away from the idea that the movie is meant to connect with individuals about what they’re doing in their day-to-day lives. He sees the danger in ourselves, and the call is for each individual to examine their choices and their role. “We are implicated,” said Oppenheimer, who elaborated:
“There may be monsters among us, something Primo Levi said, but there are too few to worry about.
The real question, the real problem, is ordinary human beings
. If you or I grew up as the son in this story, or the father in this story or the mother in this story, we might hope we’d make different choices, but we’re very lucky never to have to find out. And probably looking at the choices we do make,
we’d make very similar choices, because we do so every day
.”
It’s hard to deny the power of Oppenheimer’s words, knowing how so many of us live so comfortably with mass suffering and injustice, and how we enjoy our deception. The End was released on December 6th from NEON.
The End
The End follows a wealthy family living in seclusion within a salt mine, whose isolated existence is disrupted by the arrival of a mysterious stranger, leading to unforeseen consequences.
- Director
- Joshua Oppenheimer
- Runtime
- 148 minutes
- Writers
- Rasmus Heisterberg
