Film Forum

France, Austria, Germany, 2003
Directed by Michael Haneke
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Béatrice Dalle
Approx. 114 min. DCP.

A family, led by Isabelle Huppert, faces an arduous journey immediately following an unspecified apocalyptic event. Haneke’s spare rendering of an end-of-days scenario is convincing and chilling. With Maurice Benichou, Patrice Chéreau. 

Reviews

“One of the most harrowing and plausible visions of apocalypse since George A. Romero's 1968 zombie shocker, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.”
– Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times

“Where there is light there is life.”
– Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

“In today's digital bog of empty light and marketing deceptions, this is what early-millennium Euro art-film masterpieces feel like -- lean, qualmish, abstracted to the point of parable but as grounded as a gravedigging.”
– Michael Atkinson, Village Voice

“An unsparing assessment of humanity on the brink. The first 20 minutes alone are as galvanizing as any film likely to come out this year…As ever, [Haneke is] capable of conjuring some astonishing images, including a bravura sequence that plays out in darkness, save for the flicker of a torch made of hay. At its best, the film sustains the heightened tension of great science fiction, dropping in on a frightening new world that's just this side of familiar.”
– Scott Tobias, The Onion A/V Club