Film Review: The Survivalist

Directed by Stephen Fingleton.
Starring Martin McCann, Mia Goth, Olwen Fouéré.

Oppressive, unforgiving and cold to its core, director Stephen Fingleton uses the Irish landscape to evoke his thoughtful and terrifying dystopian vision. Martin McCann (Killing Bono), Mia Goth (Nymphomaniac) and veteran actress Olwen Fouéré star as three cut-throat individuals who have survived a complete societal collapse after the world’s oil supply dried up. Brought together in McCann’s hidden farm, the three characters are joined by the ever-present forces of suspicion, betrayal and plotting.
Confining all the action to one tiny, claustrophobic corner of this chaos, free from set pieces or CGI, Fingleton evokes the dystopian atmosphere not through the external world, but how his characters exist within it. Though the bare-bones script eschews exposition, the characters’ interactions show that their survival has depended upon murder and emotionless sexual trade. Their temporary allegiance remains precarious, as survival of the individual will always come before survival of the group.
McCann’s is excellent, bringing a meticulous method and physicality to his isolated hermit. As he joylessly masturbates, carefully tends to his crops and stonily holds his gun against the stomachs of the women, his unwavering gaze shows his ruthlessness – but the faintest glimmers of emotion linger there. Goth’s youthful, wide-eyed appearance adds an unnerving aspect to her coldly practical character, while Fouéré chews the tress around her, an ice-haired Lady Macbeth who won’t be crossed.
Through the characters’ silences and the chasm of wariness between them, the power of the forest setting emerges. With no score to dilute the oppressive silence, the hissing of wind and every ominous rustling of leaves evokes the existential hopelessness caused by the erasure of civilisation.

4/5
In cinemas now.