BEFORE THE FALL

Ale and his mother live far from the world in a small village in Spain. From an old and dilapidated TV, they receive the news of the imminent impact of a meteorite with Earth, which will put an end to human existence in three days. The two then go to the countryside house where Ale's brother (who has disappeared) and his four children live, but the only threat does not seem to be the meteorite because a serial killer, who in the past Ale's older brother had imprisoned, has escaped due to the chaos caused by the imminent end, and now seems ready to claim revenge. The end of the world is near, and before various "Melancholia," "4.44 - Last Day on Earth," "Seeking a Love at the End of the World," and "Another Earth," the end of the world, analyzed from the perspective of a small family unit, had already been depicted in 2008 by the debut Spanish director F. Javier Gutierrez in this interesting and intriguing thriller: "Tres Dias." Three days are left until the end of the planet, but the threat to Ale and his family is not only of a global nature, as they will also have to face a terrible child serial killer from their past. The film immediately puts the imminent end in the background to focus mainly on what it entails from a family relationship perspective, then shifting to a classic (but not too much) survival thriller. The background, however, is far from useless and helps us understand how much man wants to cling to life at all costs, prioritizing his own survival and that of others despite the inevitable conclusion of everything, while on the other hand, we see that feelings like revenge do not find their death with the inevitable conclusion of everything but will be the last, important, and fundamental objectives to accomplish. The film is based, like the previously mentioned titles, on the relationships between people, in this case in a semi-improvised family unit where the younger brother has to act as the "head of the family" to the four children of the older brother, meanwhile hiding from them everything that will happen to the planet Earth in the next three days. We then specify that we are dealing with a low-budget product (90% of the shots are in the family home and in the immediately surrounding areas) technically really flawless with every shot treated as if it were a photograph, with excellent image composition while the warm colors used are particular, often functional and interesting, while other times a bit fake. Another small negative note for a couple of CGI effects that, despite not being terrible, could have been spared. The location, on the other hand, is really suggestive and reminds a bit of a typically Sicilian or Apulian setting with small villages surrounded by countryside and fields around which the world is only experienced through old televisions or small and crackling radios. Great performances by the cast, with Victor Clavijo as the protagonist and Mariana Cordero ("Solas") as the mother standing out above all, while the children are always credible and perfectly in part, a rare occurrence when dealing with kids under 10 years old. For being the first feature film by F. Javier Gutierrez, it is a more than successful film that addresses the theme of the end in a far from banal way, offering a hunt/escape from a serial killer with a tragic and inevitable ending already written, making everything as pointless as profoundly fundamental to be able to close one's existence with the awareness of having survived and fought until the end. Worth watching!