Here's a reflexive analysis on an elderly couple who sees their relationship falling down each days go by on a silent and hurtful routine, but it's also a look at the turmoil caused by the Socialist regime in Western European nations. "Koniec Swiata" or simply "The End of the World" feels like a premonition of a time to come, the fall of Communism was about to take place a few days after its release (it was made in 1988 but only released in November 1989). I won't say much on why I think that, this is something you gotta see to understand. But I'll tell about the experience.
It's an old apartment owned by this old couple whose only moment of happiness is when their grandson visits them or stamped on an old picture hung on the wall, an image from their marriage. Most of the time, they don't talk with one another (and this is a very silent movie with probably six quotes, totally), they only look at each other, mutters a word here and there, and smirk at each other once in a while. The woman never gets out of the apartment, only seeing things through the window, while the man has some business on the outside, receiving some money which he hides from the lady (but she knows about it). And things start to collapse around them. And it's a strange thing since we expect them to be the clichés we see in life or in movies, they're old and wise and should be in love with each other, communicate how they feel but that's not possible. Their lives and this marriage can be saved?
Behind this apparently innocent story about maturity, loss of love and silence, the director is making a parallel related with Communism with the man representing such system (deceitful, corrupt and profiteer to himself only) and the wife representing the quiet side that simply had to get used to this new regime, laughing whenever he commits some dull act; and these two opposite forces are living under the same roof, on the same nation and all trying to project a successful image. Will they ever survive? The movie hints at how it would be possible.
Leaving that aside, "Koniec Swiata" is a brilliant film, filmmaking at its most creative, a movie that never gets dull or boring despite its lack of dialogue and its sad black and white photography. The couple is amazingly played by two eighty-year old actors, Emilia Ziólkowska and Antoni Majak (his film debut, actually), using their expressions to the max. Highly memorable. 9/10.
