LAST AND FIRST MEN

★★★

OUT NOW / BFI PLAYER / CERT TBC / 71 MINS DIRECTOR Jóhann Jóhannsson CAST (VOICE) Tilda Swinton

The first and sadly only film from the late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson (known for his work with Denis Villeneuve) is a strange, foreboding dissection of the idea of utopia. Adapted from Olaf Stapledon’s book of the same name, Jóhannsson takes a peculiar, abstract approach to turning prose into image. He shoots only barren landscapes and slowmoving, black-and-white imagery of brutalist monuments in former Yugoslavia, as the history of this future Earth is told by the disembodied voice of Tilda Swinton. It’s an unconventional first work of a career that would have been fascinating to watch unfold, and while it may test the patience, it is mostly mesmeric and even moving, as these images collide with Jóhannsson’s excellent, haunting score.