MUBI 2024 Retrospective is here. See our year.
Last and First Men
8.1
/10
1,697 Ratings

Synopsis

Two billion years in the future, humanity is on the verge of extinction. All that remains are surreal monuments—Brutalist buildings erected in communist-era Yugoslavia. As these abandoned beacons beam their message into the wilderness, a voice from the future implores us not to repeat past mistakes.

Our take

Transformed by a mesmeric score, brutalist architecture comes alive in the sole feature from the late composer Jóhann Jóhannsson (Arrival). Spoken with her cool, unmistakable timbre, Tilda Swinton’s narration envelops this hypnotic cine-poem in which concrete slabs eclipse the existence of humanity.