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This film imagines Ireland after society has crumbled
COULD YOU SURVIVE the collapse of civilisation? And how far would you go to protect your life?
These are questions posed by new Northern Irish film The Survivalist, which has been lapping up praise for its portrayal of a post-apocalyptic Ireland.
On set, it can’t have been fun – the cast went on strict diets, and lead actor Martin McCann even had to learn how to skin a rabbit in preparation.
“If you watch the film very closely you’ll see the gaze of a man who can’t wait for lunch,” jokes Belfast native McCann when he and Derry-born director Stephen Fingleton visit TheJournal.ie offices. ”No, seriously, it does get you in the mindset and does get you certainly disciplined.”
In the film, he plays the titular survivalist, a man who lives in a handmade cabin deep in the woods. He lives by his wits, on the edge, and is constantly aware that devious presences may be surrounding him.
Things shift when the survivalist – who has managed to create his own mini farm – meets a woman, Kathryn (played by veteran actor Olwen Fouréré), and her daughter Milja (Mia Goth, who starred in Nymphomaniac). The pair inveigle their way into his cabin, and life, all three hungry and aware that danger lurks outside in the long grass and heavy trees.
A post-apocalyptic tale
There are shades of Mad Max and Twelve Days Later in The Survivalist, but the power in this film lies in its subtleties: rather than lingering shots of abandoned streets, or brash characters, it strips everything back.
There’s no soundtrack, so the rustling of leaves and tense bursts of the survivalist’s breath are enough to alert the viewer to potential danger.
Turning up on set every day hungry helped McCann – who says ‘I wouldn’t be a Daniel Day Lewis, now’ when it comes to method acting – get into the mindset of the survivalist. “There’s a hidden sense of awareness that comes with being really, really hungry all the time. It’s hard,” he says. “And to get to that state it did help with the drama process because there was a heightened sense of awareness.”
He didn’t have much weight to lose. “Martin’s skin was as tight as a drum,” says Fingleton.
The nutritionist who worked with Michael Fassbender and the cast of Hunger was on hand to guide their diet – McCann’s revolved around protein and rolled cigarettes (which sounds like it was torture – he wistfully says “I love my grub” while describing what he ate), while Fouéré’s was more plant based.
“These were long hours. There was an interior journey that was very gruelling for all three of the cast,” says Fingleton, who says that the diets affected Fouéré and McCann’s emotions differently.
There were also emotional effects of dieting, places you go to that you normally don’t. [As] an outsider, I could see how Martin changed completely as a person through this process.
The location for the film was as real as they come – a specially-built cabin, with a working wood fire and enough natural light to shoot in. Fingleton says they had “an actor- driven process”, where the cast could get quickly to set, and discussions about scenes and character motivation were welcomed.
Then there were the actual survival skills that McCann had to learn. “I went on a survival course thing with Survival NI. I learned to skin a rabbit and things like that,” he says, adding quickly. “I didn’t kill any rabbits – they were already dead.”
So I realised what it would be if we did have to confront this situation, if we did have to go out into the forest and live off the land, I certainly didn’t know the first thing to do – what to eat, what not to eat, how to build a hut, how to protect yourself.
Its lasting impact was to impress on him that he’s not a natural-born survivalist himself. ”I much prefer a hotel, personally,” he shrugs. He didn’t find it tough to play the character, though, calling the experience “quite natural”.
“I just wanted it to come to an end”
The last week of filming was the hardest. “I’ve been dieting, I just want to get back to some sort of normality because it’s quite draining,” says McCann. “It’s a tense film, you’re in the forest, and Northern Ireland is not warm even during the summer, especially under the shade of the forest. So the last week I just wanted it to come to an end.”
The film was inspired by the documentary Collapse, which centres on an eccentric conspiracy theorist. It explores the notion of ‘peak oil’ theory, which says that as fossil fuel prices rise, the world economy will begin to collapse. A neat graph of this bell curve during the beginning titles serves to explain this in the film.
“It’s a very simple message, which is our population will exceed the base of resources upon which we rely, and ingenuity can delay but not deny the inevitable decline that will result,” says Fingleton, who describes Collapse as a “lightning bolt” moment for him.
“Admittedly I have a personality that is susceptible to such things, and it began to change me,” he says. “It began to change the way I see everything.”
The main thing he learned on set was about human nature. “I’m always reminded how people don’t act in their own self interest, and that really is what the film is about, is we don’t realise that a lot of what we do, we might always react or behave not necessarily in our own self interest.”
I think you have to make choices to survive and some of those choices may seem to be selfish, you may need to do desperate things.
From dystopia to sci-fi
The film has been getting some solid reviews – The Guardian gave it four stars, describing it as a “tense and brutal thriller”, while the Hollywood Reporter said it was “an assured debut with a lean, life-and-death atmosphere” – and Fingleton has been nominated for a Bafta. The future looks bright for the Northern Irish director.
He’s currently in the middle of writing a science fiction film for a “fantastic company in the US with a wonderful producer in the UK”.
He won’t divulge too much information, only to say it’s for a mainstream audience, and will have some of the radical ideas he’s attracted to, “but it will be in a package that will entertain and attract a wide range of people”.
I’ve described it as a Total Recall for the Julian Assange generation.
McCann’s next two projects will bring him to Turkey and the Scottish Highlands. The latter is for a film named Calibre, which is about two friends who go on hunting trip during which something goes dramatically wrong.
He might find that his new survival skills come in handy for this new venture. ”I don’t rate the chances of whoever is up against Martin in this film,” laughs Fingleton.
The Survivalist is out in Irish cinemas now. Two short prequels to The Survivalist are available to view on wearecolony.com.
14 Comments on "This film imagines Ireland after society has crumbled"
Davy on Sun, 14th Feb 2016 8:11 pm
I have watch many collapse films and documentaries. Most try to utilize Hollywood dopamine to sell their product. Most documentaries don’t really understand the issues and fail miserably in their focus. I have been living doom and prep for years now. I think and live collapse daily. I do this as an academic in abstraction and as an individual in training for a great race. This process is a combination of experience and fantasy.
There is the potential for a collapse spectrum. Once globalism breaks locals will once again dominate life. This means the possibilities are numerous and undefinable as opposed to the context of the common global world we now know. The 24/7 news frame will be gone one day and it will be our word of mouth not digital noise that tells the story. I would equate the collapse process to war in the sense that much of it will be boring uneventful struggle punctuated by the possibility for terrifying and dramatic events.
It is likely we are tipping into a period of excess deaths over births so expect much more death than we are used to. The weak, very young, old, and the unfortunate are not going to make it as they might now. I would also mention the best of man comes out in the worst of times. Some will find a powerful energy from within that will surface. This will be intoxicating because it will give meaning where there is none now in the wasteland we call modern life. The worst will be there too but there is nothing special about the worst of man because it is everywhere now. We live in the age of death sanitized by modern conveniences. Death as in extinction is everywhere we just choose not to see it.
An authentic collapse film would not sell because to be authentic there would need to be a degree of the uneventful to truly describe what a good portion of a collapse world will consist of. Go to a refugee camp and tell me how you could make a film of that and sell it. To be authentic this “down time” must be a part of any collapse drama. It is entirely possible we may have an apocalyptic end but the odds are nowhere certain. We have the possibility for years of decay before an event of global proportions turns the world on its head.
If I could direct a collapse film it would weave in and out of the past, present and future. I would pick a town of 50,000 near an area with potential for agriculture. This town would be decaying both with its infrastructure and population. The time frame would occur over 2 decades. The ending would be the beginning and that scene would be of a woman dying giving birth. The story would be of that woman’s life over two decades. What could be more profound then birth and death in one event? This film would be a surreal psychological drama of memories of our current world weaved into a world with a new reality of collapse.
Nony on Mon, 15th Feb 2016 1:44 am
Can I be in your movie Davy? I figure gay prostitutes will be big after the collapse. We’re big now and as collapse proceeds I only see us getting bigger. My speciality is lots of eye contact.
claman on Mon, 15th Feb 2016 2:14 am
nony, I,m kind of into “deep eye contact”, and this article fascinates me.
wwiflscience.com/brain/you-can-alter-your-mind-staring-someones-eyes-10-minutesw.
Does it ring a bell ?
I’m not gay FYI
charmcitysking on Mon, 15th Feb 2016 2:33 am
RIP Mike Ruppert.
wildbourgman on Mon, 15th Feb 2016 7:40 am
Nony, I’ve read that prostitutes in Greece are barely getting paid enough to eat due to the lingering economic crises. I wouldn’t recon that gay prostitutes would fare any better in an even worse situation, but who knows.
claman, are you related to Liz Claman, she’s the best at seductively deep eye contact with the camera on Fox business. Maybe it runs in the family!
claman on Mon, 15th Feb 2016 7:55 am
Wild, according to Davy a lot of women are gonna die giving birth, so maybe Nony’s got a chance after all.
About Liz Claman I see what you mean, but she’s got too much paint and too small eyes. Might work though on a closer look…..much closer.
claman on Mon, 15th Feb 2016 8:37 am
Maybe I should explain myself. Close and maintained eye contact is a very powerfull tool/weapon/message in a first meeting between two individuals.
As we all know from action/western movies a first stare out is essential for the further action. Either they like, hate or accept the person they encounter.
And it would be a very essential part of meeting people in the post-doom world.
Mastering the eye-contact situation is critical in a situation where you have absolutely no information about a stranger.
Intense eye contact is not just about love and hate. It’s a tool to analyse other human beings and their intentions, which can be very usefull from time to time. Espescialy in a world without law and order.
joe on Mon, 15th Feb 2016 9:23 am
Im like the frog in the pot but i know well i dont have a chance. So i try to do good while i can, i hope God will be good to me. When the hard realities of the bumpy plateau hit, people will become harder and meaner, mix with that 50-60% unemployment caused when advanced AI makes the middle class redundant (unless capitalism becomes true socialism ) then the chaos caused by mass poverty will overwhelm most of us, thats before we even begin to talk about survivalism.
claman on Mon, 15th Feb 2016 9:47 am
Joe, I’m sure God will take good care of you, and untimely let you into his heavenly home for the true believers.
Meanwhile we atheists have to deal with the mess that you and the other true believers have left behind.
You don’t even have to talk about survivalism, you’ll get raptured – you lucky ass
claman on Mon, 15th Feb 2016 10:16 am
The rapture is actually a good thing. It will take the superstitiuos, ignorant and uncouragious people away from this world, and hopefully let rational human beings create a new and better world from the ashes of the old.
shortonoil on Mon, 15th Feb 2016 12:15 pm
“The rapture” ????
No wonder we’re screwed! It is bad enough that most people think that Corn Flakes are delivered by Santa Clause.
Apneaman on Mon, 15th Feb 2016 12:23 pm
claman, that’s right. If one believes in the rapture (1830) then there is absolutely no reason to prep. Doing so would be a contradiction of faith.
Apneaman on Mon, 15th Feb 2016 1:05 pm
We Talk the Thermodynamics of Civilization with Professor Tim Garrett
“Professor Tim Garrett of the Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Utah, joins us to discuss the thermodynamic implications of our energy consumption and the possible collapse of civilization that is the result of our Greenhouse Gas by-products. Are we just a flash in the pan, so to speak? Listen-in Saturdays, 9am PST on KKRN Community Radio or stream us live at KKRN.org. Audio of this show below.”
http://kkrn.org/broadcasts/1220
Are we just a flash in the pan? YES
Apneaman on Thu, 18th Feb 2016 1:49 pm
Won’t be long now.
Scientists are floored by what’s happening in the Arctic right now
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/02/18/scientists-are-floored-by-whats-happening-in-the-arctic-right-now/
Accelerating Towards an Arctic Blue Ocean Event
http://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/2014/12/08/accelerating-towards-an-arctic-blue-ocean-event/
The First Arctic Blue Ocean Event.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS6-fwKU4oE