The End. Image Courtesy by MUBI.
How would you imagine the end of the planet earth? Fires, floods? How about ending it with a musical? That is what Joshua Oppenheimer did together with Tilda Swinton in his latest feature film: The End.
At the Berlinale Special Screening followed by a Q&A with the director Joshua Oppenheimer alongside actors Tilda Swinton and George MacKay, climate activist Luisa Neubauer was also among the guests. On the red carpet she posed with the cast holding her placard saying UNITE FOR CLIMATE ACTION #EndTheEnd.
The End is a post-apocalyptic story about a wealthy family of three living in a bunker built in a gigantic salt mine with their butler, doctor and a family friend – and after a while, joined by a girl. The characters have no names, emphasizing even more the theatrical style of the movie.
The End. Image Courtesy by MUBI.
Watching The End feels like peeping into the lives of the last individuals on planet earth, watching these survivors in their self created habitat, swinging between hope and denial. The film has very beautiful imagery through the gigantic salt mine and its organic structures as well as the carefully designed interior of the luxurious family home. The costume design includes eye pleasing, cosy knitwear, at times very chic dresses and suits, all with the courtesy of CHANEL.
In the end of the screening, the director Joshua Oppenheimer, whose grandmother was a Berliner and had to flee from Nazi Regime, briefly states that “a screening in Berlinale feels like a full circle moment”.
Image Courtesy by Burcu Beaufort.
Tilda Swinton who has played a broad range of characters explains what was so special about her role in this movie: “I was a huge admirer of Joshua’s documentaries such as The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. His name was the name of someone that I wanted to meet. He sent me some images of the salt mine, and I think that was what just got me. Also this question that the film asks how the end would be, how it would be to look at these humans. I wanted to see if I could find out the answer together with him. The process has been incredibly valuable and nourishing.”
Given its plot, The End has something socially and politically relevant to our time: destruction of our planet. Referring to the current political situation and challenges we face such as climate change, Tilda Swinton states: “It’s all about the same thing. It’s all about disconnection, whether it’s repressive laws around immigration, racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, all the old favorites coming out. It’s all about disconnection and that’s the way capitalism works. So, if we can focus on connection, then there’s a chance that the world will survive. Exploitative rich people can only operate if they are disconnected from us, from all of us, from themselves and from each other, that’s really the thing that we have to tackle.”
The End. Image Courtesy by MUBI.
Referring to her ancestry, being born into a Scottish noble family, Tilda Swinton shares an anecdote: “I must have been four. I remember going into an ancient church, I was with my family sitting upstairs in this sort of a family loft. I remember asking my mother, why were we sitting upstairs and the people sitting downstairs whose children I was playing with the day before. I remember two really interesting things. The first thing was the look on my mother’s face and she could not come up with a good answer. There isn’t a good answer. I have never had a good answer to that question. The other thing I noticed was that my beloved brothers didn’t ask the same question, and they never asked that question, and that has formed my life, I can say that right now. The search for an answer to that question and the growing dawning that there is no good answer to that question has formed my intrinsic value of connection and searching for connection, not only in my life, but right in my work.”
Joshua Oppenheimer, in total awe for Tilda’s words adds “I feel that that disconnection that you’re talking about. Here is a film that seems to be about the future. Its plot is about the future, but its story is about our dysfunction, our destructive patterns. Two days ago, Luisa (Neubauer) invited me to join the climate march at Brandenburger Gate and I was absolutely terrified. I had never stood before 10,000 people before, but the moment I saw them there, my fear vanished because I saw in them the solution to the climate crisis. I was up there with these people who felt the need to reach out to their colleagues, to their fellow trade union members, to their neighbors, to energize each other, to come together in solidarity and encourage each other and find the courage to stand up and to speak in one loud yet diverse voice, and to me that as the clouds of totalitarianism build, that solidarity is much more than just a silver lining. That’s our full humanity. That’s our humanity and our future depends on it.”
The End. Image Courtesy by MUBI.
George MacKay emphasizes the importance of art and cinema to “tackle the disconnection” Tilda mentioned before. He says “I think the oil barons and climate change are almost surface level of the film. I think what’s at its core and what intrigues me most about this film is its nuanced theme, hope and denial. I think that nuances are something to pay attention to, as we all grow. The populist politics that are so dangerous, and they feed upon binary notions and binary understandings.
We need to sort of train our thoughts, not as an indoctrination, but to open our minds to nuances. I think therefore, we need difficult films, we need complex films, we need a variety of subjects and a variety of stories, a variety of people who are telling stories. We need to give space to those perspectives to move us away from this sort of populist understanding”.