A day after “Bunker” received a 16-minute ovation at the Venice Film Festival, the film’s writer and director Florian Zeller admits he’s still processing the rapturous response.
“It’s a powerful moment because you never know how something is going to be received,” Zeller said over Zoom. “I come from theater. And you feel it. It’s a physical sensation. When it works, when emotions are shared and what you’re trying to give, is received, it’s very powerful.”
But Zeller also believes the thunderous applause wasn’t just for the taut psychological thriller that he’s crafted, but for the central performances of Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, who play a couple whose relationship is tested after the husband contemplates building a doomsday bunker for a tech billionaire. Zeller first got the idea for the story when he read about how Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg had built a similar apocalyptic retreat on his property in Hawaii.
“I was fascinated by this paradox, that this man who built his fortune on the idea of connecting people, was working on a plan B at the same time to isolate himself from the rest of the world,” Zeller said. “And I realized that, to some degree, we are all tempted now to live in a bunker. I’m not talking about a real bunker, of course. I’m talking about a more internal or more invisible bunker, where you can almost believe that you don’t need the rest of the world. Where everything can be delivered directly to you, like food, of course, but also cinema, friendship, social interaction, love, sex. The world outside is not a place you really have to explore anymore.”
But who would inhabit the modernist townhouse where much of the action of “Bunker” unfolds? Zeller started teasing out the idea of having Cruz and Bardem, who are married in real life, portray the on-screen husband and wife. As a reference, he thought about Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 erotic drama, “Eyes Wide Shut,” which titillated audiences by casting Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, who were together at the time, as a couple on the ropes.
“I remember the strange sensation that ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ gave me as a viewer, to be invited to watch something without knowing exactly what it was,” Zeller said. “Is it truth? Is it fiction? Is it another version of the truth? And I think that’s an exciting insecurity as a viewer.”
But when he pitched Bardem on making his own version of “Eyes Wide Shut” with his wife, the actor shut him down — fast.
“Javier told me, ‘You should not really mention this film in front of Penélope anymore,’” Zeller said. “And I was like, why? He said, ‘Because remember at the end of that shooting, Tom and Nicole got separated.’ Of course, I understood what he was saying because it can be a very risky thing as a wife and husband to go on the journey of a marriage in crisis.”
However, Zeller felt that “Bunker” departed from Kubrick’s film in an important respect. His movie wasn’t about the fissure of a marriage, but about its restoration.
“That was where we were going, and it allowed them to go very far into emotional places because they knew that all of this energy was dedicated to the idea of reconnecting to each other in the end,” Zeller said.
That difference in perspective can even be seen in one of the visual references that Zeller makes to “Eyes Wide Shut.” He restages a moment in the film where Kidman’s character’s slinky dress falls to the ground, revealing her bare back. But in “Bunker,” Cruz is putting on her gown, not taking it off.
“It’s the reverse,” Zeller said. “That’s because the film is about reconciliation. That’s the destination. That’s the journey.”
“Bunker” unfolds in London, but the film was shot on a soundstage in Madrid, close to where Cruz and Bardem live.
“They are a father and a mother, and it happens to be very important for them to be good parents and to take care of their children,” Zeller explained. “And when one of them is working, the other one has to take care of the family. So there was a real practical question about what to do with the children, and I thought because the film is about reconsidering the priorities of your life, it was important for them to be close to the people they love.”
But on set, Zeller said Cruz and Bardem had no problem tearing into scenes where they brutalize each other psychologically, using words as daggers intended to inflict maximum pain.
“They were really interested in catching the reality and the truth of the scenes, and they were helping each other get there,” Zeller said. “During the takes, they knew what to say to each other to trigger the anxiety or the anger or the energy that we were looking for. They have been together for so long, that they obviously used that.”
“Bunker” is Zeller’s third feature. Having made a name for himself writing emotionally charged plays like “The Mother” and “The Height of the Storm,” he made the transition behind the camera in 2020 with the Oscar-winning “The Father” and followed that up with 2022’s “The Son.” He’s currently directing a play, but even as “Bunker” continues on the festival circuit (next stop: TIFF!), he’s already looking ahead to his next film.
“My heart and my energy are really toward cinema,” Zeller said. “I’m worried about what the future holds for this industry and this art form. But we have the responsibility to fight for it and for what we believe in with passion and with courage. There’s something extraordinarily rewarding about people coming together to watch a film.”
Yes, even in the streaming era, sometimes you need to leave your bunker to gather and be moved.
“Bunker” will screen at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival on September 14. Sony Pictures Classics will release it in cinemas in the United States.
