Joshua Oppenheimer‘s musical ‘The End,’ starring Tilda Swinton, has been selected to screen at the 49th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, as announced in the full lineup on Monday, July 22. See the first-look image below.
The film is described as a post-apocalyptic musical that follows a wealthy family in an underground bunker after the end of the world, which they directly contributed to. George MacKay, Moses Ingram, Stephen Graham, Michael Shannon, Bronagh Gallagher, Tim McInnerny, and Lennie James also star in the film.
Joshua Oppenheimer is directing the film from the screenplay he co-wrote with Rasmus Heisterberg.
What is The End About?
A wealthy family survives in a palatial bunker, two decades after the world has ended. There is a mother, father, and their twenty-year-old son – he was born in the bunker and has never seen the outside world. There is a maid, with whom the son has his only honest relationship. There is also a doctor, a butler – and finally a young woman who, having barely survived, manages to find her way in.
Before the young woman arrives, the family celebrates their survival as confirmation of their success and righteousness, but unspoken blame over leaving loved ones behind has come between the parents, hollowing out whatever intimacy they once shared. They struggle to repress the guilt they feel for this – as well as a more diffuse regret for contributing to the world’s end. (The Father was an oil tycoon.) The music is inspired by Broadway’s Golden Age – the unearned optimism of the classic American musical embodies the bunker’s desperate delusions. In THE END, it is an optimism born of fear. They are afraid to face their guilt, and it is this fear, more than the inhospitable conditions outside, that prevents them from leaving. Were they to leave, they’d be confronted by the truth of what they did to the world – and the fate to which they abandoned their families.
The film is produced by Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen, with production companies including Final Cut for Real, Wild Atlantic Pictures, The Match Factory, Dorje Film, Moonspun Films, and Anagram.
The film, distributed by Neon, will hit theaters soon.
