Not so dirty, not so holy. The film is not an action movie, but an art house within the post-apocalis genre.
Further text is unlikely to be interesting to those who are not fond of both genres. Lots of spoilers.
The description of the film on the Internet is very poor:
“During the war, humanity was concerned not with the possibility of salvation but with the certainty of disaster. Many of them survived because they were not killed. There were those who were saved by the forces of order. The only hope for their salvation now is to cross the great waters.
The description, in addition to its literary clumsiness, is not very true and probably written by a person who flipped through the film in 5 minutes.
First, the film itself does not mention war. It says, “Even the soldiers are gone.”
Secondly, some kind of catastrophe occurred, but it could be anything from a world nuclear war, touching the edge of the area where the action takes place, to a local epidemic or a severely suppressed popular uprising.
Thirdly, we can only talk about the whole of humanity metaphorically, since all the action takes place in one small urban location. From the scene, the viewer will be shown a destroyed-abandoned (apparently long before the disaster) factory and a residential (before the disaster) quarter next to it, a church with a bell tower, a hut of Nemoy and a road. The whole action of the film takes place in these scenery, except for the road to the river, the bank, the river itself and the desert area that is on the other bank, which takes about 15 minutes out of 1.5 hours.
There are only 6 characters in the film, each of which is hardly an ordinary representative of humanity.
The most “normal” of them are Ray and Brian. Brian is no longer a teenager, but also not a man, on behalf of whom the narrative begins in the film, tied to Ray by the feeling of a child lost in an unfamiliar world, or an unusual love. The film does not show any manifestations of love between them, but they sleep together (that is, they sleep, in clothes, but in a hug - maybe warmer), young Brian is clearly jealous of Ray for Monito. Actually Rey is a man over 40 in a business, well-preserved suit.
Further in the degree of inadequacy - Nemoy, who lives in a one-story house without a roof near the city, plays a dilapidated half-collapsed piano, drinks tea coming to him the other characters. Well, he goes ahead on the way to the river - kind of like a leader, although not officially recognized.
Then Berry. This is a rather elderly Latino with a wrinkled face, like Machete, but much more fragile build. Cares about hygiene, takes a shower, sleeps on snow-white sheets and walks in a snow-white suit and cowboy polished half-boots - all when there is dust, dirt and debris around. He lives in the temple, every morning he goes up to the bell tower and rings the bell.
Monito is a girl of about 20 years old, with an attractive appearance. She then achieves the love of Ray, then crushes the remains of cars with a metal rod, then jumps and climbs the structures of the plant. It's the old man Beri, it pushes him away. And for long distances it moves exclusively by jumping and with monkey cries. Frequent and cardinal change of mood complements the clinical picture.
Well, the latter, not so much because of the adequacy of behavior, but because of the image - the boy Mudo. He is 6-7 years old, with a very large head, body, arms (fists seem more than adults), but small, crooked and some sick legs. Hence, it is very strange not even the gait, but the way of movement, gestures and so on, because of which he seems to me not even a person, but a kind of alien. Moreover, an intelligent face is beyond the years of a much understanding and knowledgeable person, which makes it even less like an ordinary human child.
Once again I want to mention the “factor” of the post-apocalypse. Determining the statute of limitations of the disaster in the film is quite difficult, or rather the authors deliberately make it almost impossible.
Facts indicating that the disaster occurred recently: some of the characters, as already mentioned, walk in exceptionally clean and as if new clothes; they themselves are not dirty; flames break out from the torn gas pipes in the streets - the pressure is still sufficient; water flows from some water pipes; the bodies of the whole family, which Nemoy finds in one of the houses, are absolutely fresh, not subjected not only to decomposition, but also rigoration; Rey collects valuable things, not only jewelry, but also money, the uselessness of which in the post-apocalypse world becomes obvious very quickly.
On the other hand, there is evidence and circumstantial evidence that enough time has passed since the disaster. All the characters, although they are in post-traumatic shock of varying degrees, have already adapted to new living conditions, some managed to form a “new life”. Some of the characters are dirty and wear what they got or were in at the time of the disaster – clearly worn and not new. The decision to go to the river and cross it, most of them are ripening for a long time, just can not decide and go when there are no options – either to die here or drown in the river. The family found by the Silent committed collective suicide in their beds, a decision by desperate or hopeless people, a deliberate decision.
Now a little bit about the plot. In addition to the characters, this film can be attributed more to art house than to fiction, also due to the plot. Outwardly, little happens during the film. The viewer is introduced in turn to all the characters, with the way of life of each: this is Rey and Brian, they are swinging through the destroyed neighborhoods and can not decide whether to go to the river now, or wait more. He lives in a cabin and plays the piano. This is Beri, he lives in the temple and beats the bell in the morning. This is Monito, running, jumping and climbing an abandoned factory. And all the characters have lived in this location for a long time and know each other.
The rest of the plot before the trip to the river is communication between the characters, often not quite clear, and their actions, often not at all clear, do not affect the final. At some point, all the characters finally gather, go to the river (except Monito), with considerable effort in turn swim across it and right in front of the credits and during them we see that they are walking on some desert. We must have crossed. That's it. In the plot there are many inefficiencies, incompleteness, holes and questions, the answers to which I, as a lover of science fiction in general and postA in particular, would be curious to know. But the author had no answers, or they thought that the viewer himself should answer them, but most likely just did not bother with such trifles. Well, that's why the art house.