The time has come! The zombie apocalypse is well underway and it‘s literally on our doorstep: the few remaining survivors are gathering in Thuringia. While an antidote is allegedly being developed in Jena, Weimar is fully focused on border fence security so no zombies can enter (purists, yes I call them zombies even though they move very fast). Sisters Vivi (Gro Swantje Kohlhof) and Eva (Maja Lehrer) attitude‘s are just as different as Jena and Weimar‘s approaches. Eva has no scruples about chopping bodies of all kinds if it assures her survival. Vivi‘s survival instinct has sunken into fear and depression. When the two find each other again in an open field in a no man‘s land, everything about what they thought they knew about themselves and the state of the world is put into question.

A crow might not peck out someone‘s eye out, but people will do that to each other – not to mention other living beings. ENDZEIT isn‘t just a bloody zombie horror film, it also questions whether decimating humanity isn‘t also a good thing for everything that creeps and crawls on this planet. A good genre film is characterized by using similar stories and set pieces while expanding on them. Carolina Hellsgård‘s film, based on a graphic novel by Olivia Vieweg, also has fascinating ideas. It‘s too bad that these issues were recently dealt with in other apocalyptic films. However, a zombie apocalypse in Thuringia from a female perspective is something that surely no one has seen yet.

Katharina Franck (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy