Narrated by Tilda Swinton

Written by Jóhann Jóhannsson and José Enrique Macián

Directed by Jóhann Jóhannsson

Available on BFI Player

A future history of mankind.

The only directorial work of legendary composer Jóhann Jóhannsson has the same sort of towering, melancholic, hopeful energy as his music. Best known for the scores for Arrival and Mandy, Jóhannsson’s fondness for stacking walls of concepts and sound atop one another is very well suited to this adaptation of Olaf Stapledon’s 1930 novel.

Shot in frosty, deliberate black and white, Jóhannsson and cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen tour the World War II monuments of Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro. The towering, brutalist monoliths they find are beautiful in a stark, often horrifying way and they linger over them with precision and, oddly, compassion. As the camera arcs slowly through the massive obelisks, distorted masks and towers of the monuments, Tilda Swinton starts to speak and you realize that the monuments are doing double duty. The first is as monuments, a testament to what was lost. Stapledon’s story is a ‘future historical’ novel presented as a transmission from the last group of humans left alive in the distant future. To have that played out over monuments to one of the most horrific losses of life in modern history adds gravitas to the situation but doesn’t cheapen either the location or the story.

But the monuments also serve as a reminder of persistence, in every sense. The story follows this last group as they find a means to contact the past and a means of potentially spreading humanity past the world that will end with them. The film itself becomes a monument here. One of persistence both of art and ideas. All that matters is that people remember.

It’s a sweeping, massive statement and one that hums with energy and compassion. It’s also lensed into intensity by the contrast between the bleak, if beautiful, images we see and the words being spoken. Both matter. Both matter together. First and Last. Last and First.

Verdict: Last and First Men is 70 minutes long and if you can handle the very slow pace, it’s a beautiful movie. It’s available on BFI Player. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart