Bunker actors Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Stephen Graham and Paul Dano discussed the sociopolitical themes in Florian Zeller’s Venice competition title Bunker during the film’s press conference on the Lido on Tuesday, September 8.
Bunker is a thriller about an architect who accepts an offer from a tech billionaire to build a survivalist bunker, causing the architect’s wife to re-evaluate their 17-year marriage. Real-life couple Bardem and Cruz play the on-screen couple, with Dano as the billionaire and Graham as the couple’s working-class neighbour who embarks on his own projects of converting his garage into a studio.
“When I read the script I was blown away,” said Graham. “It was the working man’s attitude towards his environment. In my country the cost-of-living has gone through the roof. It’s re-gentrification with the people that used to live in that area, particularly where we set [Bunker] in London.
“If you can’t afford to live in the area where you grew up and where your grandad grew up, where do you go?” asked the actor. “We had a home; now we can’t afford to have that home. What I loved was the ethical questions in the script. As humans, without ethics we have no future.”
“Whether it’s due to technology or the pandemic, our lives have become increasingly insular and hermetic,” said Dano. “I was particularly moved by Stephen’s character and arc, especially as somebody who lives in a city and does care a bit about his privacy. One of the messages of the film is: could we all stand to open a few more windows? And I think we could.”
Bardem has regularly spoken his mind on political topics, including on the Gaza war in recent years, voicing his support for the people of Palestine and criticism of the actions of the Israeli state.
“As an artist, you have a responsibility to tell the story that the director or author wants,” said Bardem. “Then as an individual - it doesn’t matter if you’re an artist, actor, plumber, or taxi driver – you have a right to expose your truth or what you think is important.
“I have more resources to do it than a taxi driver because I have this thing [Bardem gestured to his microphone] and you guys listening to me. So the responsibility is a different one. It’s important to have a responsibility towards the world we live in, and I don’t take it for granted.
“This movie speaks about how much we are willing to see, feel, welcome the other. Our fear based on what we imagine – based on that, how much are we going to isolate ourselves and criminalise and dehumanise the other?”
Metaphorical
“We don’t have to agree with our characters, we don’t have to agree with the stories, but this [film] involves so many aspects of where the world is right now,” added Cruz. “There are so many things we touch in this film that it would be contradictory to be here and say, ‘I don’t want to talk about that’. It’s impossible.
“A situation like [a press conference] is sometimes more scary than the weeks of shooting that we had. But still, I don’t think it would make sense to say ‘I don’t talk about politics.’”
“To make a film is already speaking, in a metaphorical way,” added Zeller. “Of course it’s a commentary about this situation where very few people own almost everything. They own our privacy, our email addresses, the platforms on which we communicate, and that’s a real issue that we have to face.”
Cruz expressed happiness at being able to speak in Spanish in the film with Bardem, as she said the characters would in real life. “Even if you look back 10 or 15 years, it was always so challenging to get financiers to accept something like that,” said the actress. “We’ve been trying to convince producers or sometimes even directors to try things that way. The audience was always ready for that, but there was a fear. [But] this is what kids grow up used to now – multilingual films, which is the way the world is.”
FilmNation handles world sales on Bunker, with Sony Pictures Classics acquiring North America and Southeast Asia rights in July, and Studiocanal taking UK-Ireland rights.
Venice film festival runs until Saturday, September 12.
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