Survivors of a nuclear attack are grouped together for days in the basement of their apartment building, where fear and dwindling supplies wear away at their dynamic.
Gens and his actors stick to their task grimly, and the film boasts some stunning images – none more than the final shot, which is almost worth enduring what goes before it.
Mixing vague sci-fi with hardcore horror, beautiful cinematography with ugly nihilism, Xavier Gens’ (Frontier(s)) impressively grim film has points to make about post-9/11 militarism, but you get the sense that humanity disgusts him so much he’d rather leave his characters to the roaches.
Will do to audiences exactly what it says on the title.
Spare, unforgiving and hopeless look at the foundations of human nature at the end of the world.
The story makes little sense and the film wastes decent actors. One to avoid.
It's a waste of a good setup as the situation and location are well drawn.
Gens' nihilism will be too toxic for some, but those open to the Frenchman's sledgehammer bravura will find a haunting, blackly comic take on humankind’s inhumanity.
A nasty, efficient film that makes the imminent end of life on Earth seem like the judgment of a wise God.
Survival of the fittest in a post-apocalypse wow
Director Xavier Gens on The Divide
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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