‘Bunker,’ Director Florian Zeller
Florian Zeller’s London- and Madrid-shot psychological thriller finished shooting early this year and has been in post since spring, which precluded a Cannes Fest entry.
This is the director’s first original screenplay, after adapting two of his own plays for the screen: The Father, which won Anthony Hopkins his second Best Actor Oscar, and the less satisfying The Son.
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Bunker stars real-life Spaniard spouses Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz as a couple whose marriage buckles after he, a celebrated architect, accepts a commission to build a bunker for a billionaire.
Zeller wrote the script expressly for the acclaimed Spanish pair, hoping to draw on the texture of a real long-term cohabitation.
Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger co-star.
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None of Bunker‘s principals are Venice newcomers. The Son premiered in competition there in 2022.
Both leads have won the Volpi Cups for their acting: Bardem for Before Night Falls (2000), and Cruz for Parallel Mothers (2021); movies that also earned them Oscar nominations.
