Florian Zeller’s latest feature film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday, draws inspiration from the secret survival bunkers of tech billionaires. The movie, titled “Bunker,” stars real-life couple Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz as a husband and wife navigating a crumbling marriage. The plot centers on a renowned architect tasked with designing a luxury shelter in Hawaii for a wealthy client who believes society is on the verge of collapse.
Zeller, who earned an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for “The Father” in 2021, noted that the project was sparked by reports of prominent entrepreneurs constructing hidden retreats. The director described the paradox of individuals who built their fortunes on global connectivity now seeking ways to isolate themselves from the rest of the world. He explained that the narrative evolved into a broader critique of an economic system where a tiny elite wields immense influence over privacy, communication platforms, and the global landscape.
Beyond the physical structure of a shelter, the film examines what Zeller calls an “invisible bunker”—the tendency for modern individuals to isolate themselves in a world where social interactions are increasingly mediated by screens. “The more I was thinking about it, the more I realised that all of us, to some degree, are tempted to live in a bunker,” Zeller remarked. He emphasized that the film serves as a commentary on how few people control the essential infrastructure of modern life, noting that they own our email addresses and the very platforms we use to communicate.
Casting Bardem and Cruz together was a deliberate choice to blur the lines between reality and fiction, according to Zeller. Cruz shared that she felt a personal connection to the film’s themes, particularly its critique of power. “I believe that the people making the biggest decisions in the world can probably be counted on the fingers of two hands, and sometimes even one hand would be enough,” she said. She expressed concern over the rapid pace of global events and the feeling that there is little time for society to react to such concentrated manipulation.
While Bardem stated he did not draw from his own marriage to portray the strained relationship on screen, Cruz highlighted the unique linguistic layer of the film. The couple speaks Spanish to one another in the movie, reflecting their real-life dynamic, while switching to English for external interactions. Cruz noted that while such multilingual approaches were once difficult to pitch to financiers, audiences are now more accustomed to seeing films where characters speak the languages they would naturally use in their daily lives. The report also notes that “I thought it was a fascinating paradox because this man, who made a fortune based on the idea of connecting people together, was working on a Plan B to isolate himself from the rest of the world,” the French director to. The report also notes that cruz told reporters that she was drawn to the project partly because it explored her own concerns.
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