Bunker

A privileged Spanish couple based in London—he (Javier Bardem) an architect, she (Penélope Cruz) a literary editor—begin to question their relationship after a series of unnerving events. He receives an irresistible offer from a tech billionaire to build a private bunker in Hawaii, while she meets a young, free-spirited writer who opens her eyes to what she really values in life. Meanwhile, their working-class neighbour illegally installs a window in the wall separating their properties, violating their privacy. Designed as a classic Hollywood thriller about a glossy, picture-perfect couple in peril, BUNKER deftly unpacks some of the biggest fears of our post-pandemic era: escalating alienation between individuals and classes as a seemingly certain pathway to neoliberal apocalypse, and a post-nuclear future in which only the richest—the best insulated—are left alive and still having fun. Florian Zeller is a virtuoso when it comes to moral twists and playing with viewers’ expectations. He keeps the suspense building while providing Cruz and Bardem with an intimate space to pitch an intense emotional battle: ultimately, the antidote to all these dreads, and perhaps the only thing that no bunker will ever be able to contain. (Evgeny Gusyatinskiy)

Florian Zeller (selection): THE FATHER (2020), THE SON (2022)