Have we got a treat for you!
Acclaimed documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer (THE ACT OF KILLING, THE LOOK OF SILENCE) makes his narrative debut with this post-apocalyptic musical starring Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon and George MacKay, opening at The Lexi from Friday 28th March.
To celebrate the film's release, we're extremely pleased to have Director Joshua Oppenheimer and Actor George MacKay joining us on opening night for a post-film Q&A!
Many of you will have seen George on screen at The Lexi before in films like 1917, TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG and CAPTAIN FANTASTIC. I'd be remiss if I didn't shout out his exceptional performance in last year's THE BEAST which you can watch on Mubi now with your Lexi membership... But he is doing career best work alongside his cast mates in Joshua's epic tale of survivors' guilt.
Joshua Oppenheimer's early filmmaking work in the late 90s and early 00s mostly surrounded short films. Though his contribution as part of the collective 'Vision Machine' to THE GLOBALISATION TAPES is particularly worth seeking out, available as part of Second Run's incredible DVD of his early works.
He's best known for his two uncompromising companion documentaries THE ACT OF KILLING and THE LOOK OF SILENCE, both of which played at The Lexi on release in 2013 and 2015. They each explore the internal conflict (or lack thereof) of the individuals who participated in the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66. The pioneering documentarian techniques used by Joshua and his collaborators elevate these from traditional talking head documentaries, with the language of cinema itself integral to understanding, for better or worse, the minds of those behind such gruesome atrocities. The pair received richly deserved Academy Award nominations for Best Documentary Feature and are widely considered to be two of the best documentaries ever made.
Joshua's first narrative feature is THE END, a musical set twenty-five years after environmental collapse left the Earth uninhabitable which follows a family disrupted by the arrival of a stranger. Though a golden age musical may appear a departure from his harrowing documentary work, what lurks beneath the surface of this family's safe haven is something equally sinister. Using the language of the Hollywood Musical to escape from ongoing turmoil has been present throughout cinema's history, and Joshua's clear affection for that era shines through. But whilst there's joy and playfulness in the performances and family dynamics, the confidence and opulence of evil is hard to stomach, albeit necessary to see.
