The Place Where the Last Man Died (2010)

directed by Ivan Perić
Croatia
86 minutes
3 stars out of 5
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One of the only Croatian sci-fi/horror films I've heard of. This takes place in the somewhat far future: the population is stated to have reached seventeen billion, there's been time enough to have at least one more World War followed by some kind of a plague or biological weapons outbreak, and technology has regressed to almost a 1950s-like level after much time and degradation. There's a whole lot of doom and gloom in this one and certainly a very realistic atmosphere of post-disaster societal breakdown, even though the most society we ever get to see is a group of four people.

The main character is responsible for ending the human race and seems quite happy with himself about that. From his narration we learn that as a military scientist he apparently had the means to wipe humanity off the planet, and decided to do it because he judged that too many people were suffering while a select few enjoyed paradise on Earth. Which does hit the nail on the head, but to see the only solution to it as... global genocide? Instead of redistributing wealth and resources from the pampered elite to those in dire need? End the world for all of us because life is unfair, instead of working towards making it fair? There's some shaky logic in that decision.

Predictably, because it would be more surprising to not have any stragglers, the main character meets some survivors. They all have on gas masks the whole time, which is a decision I had trouble seeing the symbolism behind, because it felt counterproductive: the gas masks, to me, suggested anonymity, when in reality it would basically be the opposite of anonymity to be one of four people who are maybe the last humans left alive. Because I couldn't see anybody's face, I couldn't get attached to them, and the acting seemed to suffer as well since I had no idea what expressions anybody had at any given time. I also mixed up the characters quite a bit as three of them are men who all have roughly the same build.

Like I said, this is impressive in how it manages to worldbuild with very little, just the Croatian countryside with some gritty filters laid over it and a whole lot of rubble and debris. I actually didn't care for the filter at all, because it looked like something meant for an industrial music video and not a full-length, professional movie. What's black and white and vaguely greenish all over? This movie. But it's still very interesting, and I'll watch basically anything post-apocalyptic, bonus points if it includes some horrible tragedy where humanity is decimated. I love that doom and gloom. I'd just like to have an actual story to go along with it.