Bunker

Oscar winners Penélope Cruz (TIFF ’06’s Volver) and Javier Bardem (TIFF ’07’s No Country For Old Men) — together on screen for the first time since TIFF ’18’s Everybody Knows — play a couple whose bond becomes tested when a lucrative proposal prompts an ethical impasse. The latest from Oscar-winning writer-director Florian Zeller (TIFF ’20’s The Father) is an investigation into the limits of long-term partnership and an incisive exploration of class disparity. In 17 years of marriage, literary agent Sofia (Cruz, also at this year’s Festival in La Bola Negra) has never resented her “starchitect” husband Miguel (Bardem, also at this year’s Festival in The Beloved) for uprooting the family from Madrid to London, where he rose to prominence. Fissures appear in their foundation, however, when a mysterious billionaire (Paul Dano, TIFF ’25’s The Wizard of the Kremlin) asks Miguel to design a luxury bunker where a tiny cluster of the ultra-wealthy can take shelter in an apocalypse.

The offer appeals to Miguel’s vanity as much as his pocketbook: this is an opportunity to furnish a pyramid for a modern-day pharaoh. But for Sofia, the proposal reeks of the gross inequality that is destroying the world. As tensions mount, Miguel becomes preoccupied by what he deems as a neighbour’s violation of his privacy, while Sofia seeks a promotion at work — and is disarmed by the attention of an attractive young author.

Supported by Stephen Graham (TIFF ’25’s Good Boy), Patrick Schwarzenegger (The White Lotus, also at the Festival with Love of Your Life), and Dano, Cruz and Bardem infuse their roles with complexity and vulnerability. In this tale of affluence, paranoia, and ambition, there is nothing more precious than love.

Content advisory: violence, mature themes