Critics reviews

[Parabellum is] the debut from Austrian filmmaker Lukas Valenta Rinner, whose highly political depiction of a group of radicals who retreat to a remote training outpost in anticipation of the apocalypse is helped considerably in its own metaphorical mission by the director's methodical sense of cinematic space and time and his adherence to narrative ambiguity.

Rinner suggests an eccentric commentary on one's preservation or loss of a moral compass when the current social "rules" don't necessarily apply once society is gone. But this remains underdeveloped in light of the film's rigid structure, which is too rooted in following the faux-guidebook that little regard is paid to in-between moments to flesh out the intriguing themes and characters; Rinner... seems to believe that deviating from the guidebook's text will spell certain doom.

Rinner's carefully composed frames maintain the de rigueur cool distance à la Ulrich Seidl... Rinner's meticulous debut plays like a black comedy—until it doesn't—and the only false move comes with the closing shot, which unnecessarily makes good on the intimations of social breakdown in the film's opening scenes.

All qualms and quibbles are blasted away by a startling, quietly magnificent final shot which makes superb use of Roman Kasseroller's color-leached 2.35:1 widescreen cinematography and answers the mystery of the meteor-like trails occasionally spotted in the sky throughout the running-time. This crackerjack climax, like the witty and arrestingly bold pre-titles prologue, showcases Rinner's flair and economy in a manner that makes him a name to note.