The End We Start From

Director: Mahalia Belo

Writers: Alice Birch, Megan Hunter

A young couple (Jodie Comer, Joel Fry) find themselves new parents in the middle of a developing environmental crisis. As flood waters starts to make London uninhabitable, they head off to high ground and his parents (Nina Sosanya, Mark Strong). But as the disaster continues resources become scarce and a life changing incident send the young parents back out into a very different world. We follow a young mother trying to navigate societal breakdown and an evermore treacherous landscape as she tries to find her way home, the life she’s lost and to give her new child a chance of a normal upbringing.

There is no getting away from this being a bleak look at a future impacted by environmental change. It’s close enough to reality to feel believable, uncomfortable and possible. It spends a lot of time in grey wind swept wilderness and sometimes it does make watching feel windswept, grey and hard work.

But it’s also interesting and in the, as always, excellent Jodie Comer, you have a lead who you engage with and care for as you feel every bit of her struggle as she tries to navigate a new world and new motherhood.

It’s a though story, but alongside Comer’s excellent performance full of strength and vulnerability, there is a host of solid performances that keep you involved and intrigued. This is especially true of Katherine Waterston who provides a companion for much of the journey. But it is Comer that does all the heavy lifting from start to finish.

It doesn’t work perfectly, it does feel it drags a little, but maybe that’s just the work involved navigating its endless bleakness.

This is an interesting, tense, bleak and well told story that looks at humanity and society, good, bad and the bits inbetween. It’s tension filled and, thanks to Jodie Comer, it does enough to keep you interested throughout. A dark look at an apocalyptic future that feels a little to close for comfort.