Cinema Egzotik: Night of Post Apocalyptica

Ronald Simons explains: “The post-apocalyptic genre comes in all shapes and sizes, but The Road (2009) and 28 Days Later… (2002) are unprecedentedly grim in their portrayal of doom. The literally and figuratively bleak future in The Road, the film adaptation of the novel by Cormac “No Country for Old Men” McCarthy, is uncompromisingly dismal and dreary. And the opening sequence of Danny Boyle”s 28 Days Later… , with the character of Cillian Murphy walking through an utterly deserted London, is “the stuff that nightmares are made of”.

The Road

The Amsterdam Photography Museum Foam is showing a solo exhibition of the Belgian artist Geert Goiris, whose photographic work has an air of stillness and is pervaded by a post-apocalyptic mood. All the more reason for Egzotik to pick up on this theme by showing two celebrated post-apocalyptic titles from the lucky or not-so-lucky dip of eerie cinema.

Ronald Simons explains: “The post-apocalyptic genre comes in all shapes and sizes, but The Road (2009) and 28 Days Later… (2002) are unprecedentedly grim in their portrayal of doom. The literally and figuratively bleak future in The Road, the film adaptation of the novel by Cormac “No Country for Old Men” McCarthy, is uncompromisingly dismal and dreary. And the opening sequence of Danny Boyle”s 28 Days Later… , with the character of Cillian Murphy walking through an utterly deserted London, is “the stuff that nightmares are made of”.

The Road John Hillcoat (US 2009)

A father and his ten-year-old son appear to be the last remaining people on earth in John Hillcoat”s [C2] somber tale of a world destroyed by an unnamed disaster. Father and son try to survive against all odds, even though life appears to have lost all meaning. Their journey across a desolate, post-apocalyptic landscape brings them closer together. Impressive role by Viggo Mortensen.

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28 Days Later… Danny Boyle (GB 2002)

When Jim wakes up from a coma in a completely empty hospital it turns out the inhabitants of London have taken flight – but from what? An escaped laboratory chimpanzee infected with a virus appears to have spread an epidemic, with full-scale panic as a result. Boyle”s gritty shots of desolate streets perfectly capture the post-apocalyptic world.

The Night of Post-Apocalyptica is the final episode in “Foam Meets EYE”, a joint programming initiative on the theme of “the apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic image” to mark the exhibition Geert Goiris – Flashbulb Memories, Ash Grey Prophecies.