What is Joshua Oppenheimer's The End about? Post-apocalyptic musical reveals first look

Joshua Oppenheimer’s highly anticipated film The End is set to make an appearance at some of the famous film festivals such as Telluride and the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). There is also speculation that the world premiere might take place at the Venice Film Festival. Initially overlooked by Cannes, The End has generated significant attention with its unique style of narrative premise and star cast.

TIFF has given audiences their first glimpse of this unique post-apocalyptic musical, heightening anticipation for its release.

The End is described as a post-apocalyptic Golden Age musical, combining the grim setting of a world-ending scenario with classic Broadway musicals.

The production of the film began in February 2023, and it features stars like George MacKay, Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, Moses Ingram, Bronagh Gallagher, Tim McInnerny, and Lennie James.

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What is Joshua Oppenheimer's The End about?

The End centers around the last surviving human family, living in a luxurious bunker two decades after the apocalypse. The family consists of a mother, a father, and their twenty-year-old son, who was born in the bunker and has never experienced the outside world.

Alongside them are a maid, a doctor, a butler, and eventually a young woman who stumbles upon their sanctuary, having barely survived the harsh conditions outside.

The family's survival is initially celebrated as a testament to their resilience and superiority. However, beneath the surface, there is unspoken tension and guilt over the fate of the loved ones they left behind.

This emotional turmoil is compounded by their role in the world's destruction; the father was an oil tycoon whose actions contributed significantly to the environmental collapse.

The musical aspect of the film, inspired by Broadway’s Golden Age, serves as a contrast to the bleak reality outside the bunker, symbolizing the family's desperate delusions and fear of facing their culpability.

The music in The End embodies an optimism born out of fear, highlighting the family's internal conflict and their reluctance to confront their past. This fear, more than the inhospitable conditions outside, keeps them confined within the bunker. Leaving would force them to face the consequences of their actions and the harsh reality of the world they helped destroy.

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Details on the first look of The End

This image, which was released via TIFF for the first time, provides a sneak peek into The End both visually and thematically speaking. This picture shows how luxurious are surroundings inside of an underground shelter are when compared with the devastated wasteland outside.

Overall, these differences become important elements concerning survival, guilt, or even psychological distress that ensues after a period of isolationism.

The film’s originality lies in its genre as a post-apocalyptic musical. The fact that the music used comes from Broadway’s Golden Age adds some irony and depth since these characters feign happiness through songs while living in misery.

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More details on The End

Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen produced the movie, is made in collaboration with Final Cut for Real, Wild Atlantic Pictures, The Match Factory, Dorje Film, Moonspun Films, and Anagram. The film’s production journey began in October 2021 when it was announced that Oppenheimer had set his next project at Neon, with Tilda Swinton, George MacKay, and Stephen Graham initially cast.

By March 2023 other cast members like Moses Ingram, Michael Shannon, Bronagh Gallagher, Tim McInnerny, and Lennie James joined the ensemble as well and Shannon replacing Graham was announced.

While filming took place in Ireland; it also included locations in Italy and Germany.

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The movie is set to be distributed by Neon shortly after its festival premieres.