WE BURY THE DEAD

Australia, 2024, 94 minutes, Colour.

Daisy Ridley, Brenton Thwaites, Mark Coles Smith, Matt Whelan.

Directed by Zach Hilditch.

As with so many post-apocalyptic stories, the dead seem to have a life of their own before they are buried after being killed a second time.

The screenplay for this film does not use the word zombie but refers to those who have died and have some kind of continuing thread of life within them. And the situation is dire, a nuclear situation gone wrong, a brief visual indication that the US is to blame, an explosion along the east coast of Tasmania, centering on Hobart and its large population but affecting the surrounding coast and towns, half a million killed.

Many volunteers arrive in Tasmania, military and police control, the allotting of tasks, finding bodies, those with some continuing life in them, destroying and burying them, identifications. One of the volunteers is Ava, Daisy Ridley, whose husband has been attending a retreat weekend in southern Tasmania. A sympathetic guard allows her to become part of the squad for finding the dead, teaming her up with a divorced tradesman, from Melbourne, Clay, Brenton Thwaites.

While there are some grotesque moments, the emphasis is on the drama but not highlighting, as in some of the zombie films, the increasing menace of the threatening living dead. But Ava is eager to continue south, with the help of Clay, his motorbike, but a difference and his disappearing.

The next drama concerns Riley, Mark Coles Smith, military, on training in Queensland at the time of the disaster, returning home to find his pregnant wife. Suspicions, help, and a sense of betrayal and Ava’s determination to go further south, even walking.

The opening of the film did indicate something of the relationship between Ava and her husband, the wedding, the aftermath but intimations that all was not well, confirmed when she does eventually find him dead  in the resort.

The film has been written and directed by Western Australia director, Zach Hilditch, whose previous film, Their Final Hours, also explored disasters and consequences. And, interesting to note concerning landscapes and coasts, while the film is set in Tasmania, the filming was done in Western Australia.

An interesting variation on the living dead dramas.

1. Post-apocalyptic story – set in the present? In Australia, Tasmania, the destruction of Hobart? An American accident, incident?
2. The Tasmanian settings, the countryside, the coast, the city of Hobart, the resort? But filmed in Western Australia? The musical score?
3. The title and its tone, the words on never mentioned, the dead, some “coming online again”, the squad to identify, to destroy?
4. Expectations of a zombie film, this film is different, comparatively few living dead sequences, threats, drama, but humanity? Need for execution? The difference, the central characters, personal stories, sense of humanity, identifying the dead, their lives, a and her search for her husband, Riley and his dead pregnant wife, the men digging the grave for his family, her helping him? A different tone?
5. The background of the explosion, the explanations, the demonstrations in America, the visuals of the explosion, the aftermath, smoke, the number of people dead?
6. A over at her story, in herself, her relationship with Mitch, the continued flashbacks, the development of the relationship, together, the dance, the wedding, the aftermath, explanation of morals, his going to the resort, her reading, committed search for him, the discovery of his body, the card for the woman, taking off his wing? Her response?
7. Ava, volunteering, the large number of volunteers, their task, the military, seeds of detail of the work, identifying the bodies? And throughout the film the number places where bodies are discovered, single, vast assemblies of corpses? Ava teaming with a Play, his Melbourne background, building, separation from his family, unable to get out of his own way, his language? The work, working with a, the danger, finding corpses, those online, the killings?
8. Clay, the motorbike, Ava persuading him to take her South, the ride, the visuals of the highway, the stranded cars, the dead? The authorities, the confrontation with Clay, Riley, Clay and his escape?
9. The episode with Riley, sympathetic, intelligible with the military, finding his pregnant wife dead, the hopes, the decision to take a, at his home, his moods, the memories while, a in her clothes, the dance, the music and the earpiece, the effect on him, the effect on her, her reaction, the confrontation, her attack on him?
10. The decision to walk, the episode with the man digging the grave, helping with the burial? Her finding the bed-and-breakfast, her husband, the woman, talking to her husband, eventually taking of her ring? The disappointment and disillusionment?
11. Finding Clay, together, Clay and his future, Ava and her future?