Paradoxically, the end of the world as we know it has always been one of the sturdiest, most reliable narrative propositions imaginable. There’s an almost inexhaustible range of possibilities (will we perish at the hands of robots? Bombs? Pestilence? Extra-terrestrial invasion? There’s so much choice!) and the only limit is a writer’s imagination. One thing has usually been consistent, however. Humanity’s approaching doom has rarely been presented as anything other than spectacular.
Until now, that is. As co-founder of the purist-going-on-puritanical Dogme 95 filmmaking movement alongside Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg has never been afraid of making a stark statement. He’s the creator of Danish drama Families Like Ours – an end-of-days drama trading, quite knowingly, in incrementally widening puddles rather than a deluge; in bureaucracy rather than brutality; social manners rather than societal collapse.
