writ. and dir. Michael Haneke
feat. Isabelle Huppert, Beatrice Dalle, Patrice Chereau, Rona Hartner, Maurice Benichou, Olivier Gourmet, Brigitte Rouan, Lucas Biscombe, Hakim Taleb, Anais Demoustier
Haneke kicks into the post-catastrophic tale with both a bang and a whimper, perhaps pegging the reality of such a situation more accurately than your typical Hollywood blockbuster without the explosions or media theatrics. After an unknown event disconnects France from the world and sends people panicking, stockpiling food and bolting the doors, Anne (Huppert) is left wandering the countryside with her two young children, Eva and Ben (Biscombe and Demoustier), struggling for survival. As Anne strains to keep the family together while seeking food and shelter, the slim and easily disrupted cover of civilization evaporates, revealing just how close people are to the hardscrabble life where the next meal is not guaranteed.
While there is no assurance of safety in numbers, the family joins other refugees to share resources and a rough sense of community in a tight space where fractures and conflicts come easily, the best and worst traits of man surfacing within seconds of one another. Eva seeks companionship from a boy slightly older than her, finding repeated disappointment in his selfish nature but returning to him repeatedly as though he is her last desperate chance to find hope in the desolate world. Meanwhile, though quieter and appearing less affected, the younger Ben is propelled into a realm of doubt rarely discovered before adolescence, anguish spurred and amplified by the evident meaninglessness of existence in the wasteland. While his moments on the brink of utter and irreparable hopelessness are brutally heartbreaking to watch, they are also the film's greatest strength and terribly unforgettable. As a Westerner who is aware that the great majority of the world's people live in similar situations- few resources, unclean water, on the verge of starvation- it's difficult not to see the film as a symbol of what many must go through daily, an added layer of resonance that may or may not be Haneke's intention.
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