Xavier Gens
The Divide

A classic post-apocalyptic science fiction film that tells the story of a small group of survivors who take refuge from the nuclear holocaust in the underground of a condominium in NYC.

Directed by French director Xavier Gens, born in 1975 and known for specializing in the horror genre (his 2007 film 'Frontière(s)' was considered one of the noteworthy French genre films of recent years), even though it is a science fiction film, it must be said that 'The Divide', which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas in 2011, is nevertheless a film with particularly frightening content and, while gruesome, carries characteristics that certainly echo the imagery and patterns typical of horror films.

The film is a joint production between Canada, Germany, and the United States and was filmed entirely in Winnipeg, Manitoba, at the Millennium Centre and the Manitoba Production Centre.

I wouldn't call it a first-rate production; it's definitely not a blockbuster, but neither is it a b-movie. Instead, it is simply a film that I would classify as 'genre' and that indeed would have all the hallmarks to be listed in the horror genre, which then often is indeed a kind of sub-genre or something that is always considered apart from the rest of cinematic productions. However, the premises on which it is built and the development of the plot align perfectly with the science fiction cinema, also trying, despite its conceptual paucity, to propose some sociological themes and the interchanges and relationships among the survivors and how this theme is applied and considered within a closed micro-system, as indeed has already been extensively experimented within the history of the science fiction genre starting from '2001: A Space Odyssey' itself and more recently, I think of Oliver Hirschbiegel's 'Das Experiment' and its various remakes, or two recent films like Matt Osterman's '400 Days' or Tarsem Singh's 'Self/less'.

But the main subject is perhaps the same one that has been variously developed by J.G. Ballard in two fundamental works such as 'High-Rise' or 'Concrete Island'. Although it clearly lacks the development of socio-political themes that were typical of one of the most brilliant minds among genre authors.

The cast of the film is what I would call a medium-level cast with actors from the USA cinema who usually play supporting or secondary roles, but who, in any case, here perform adequately in roles that are, after all, not exactly simple.

On the other hand, the film has no settings: everything takes place in this underground and revolves around the dynamics that develop within the group of survivors. A situation of precarious balance that, following a couple of initial incidents, will degenerate completely until it descends into a climate of terror where everything becomes grotesque and frightening at the same time.

It's impossible to decipher the passage of time within the film: practically, by the director's express will, we don't know if everything happens in a short time or not. Even though the feeling is that of witnessing a continuous escalation of events which is fundamentally due to each person’s terror for their own survival and their consequent degeneration as human beings striving to gain dominance over others at all costs and at the expense of completely compromising their humanity.

'The Divide' is for all these reasons a film I would describe as laden with violence: a violence expressed in the actions of the protagonists and the events we witness, but also somehow simply from the atmosphere and settings, deliberately characterized by an aura of darkness and decay. As indeed the characters themselves, whom we watch gradually change over the course of the film, fall victim to madness, hunger, nuclear radiation. Significant in this sense is the fact that makeup artist Steven Kostanski was awarded at the International Film Festival of Catalonia for his work on this film.