Endgame

In this absurd tragicomedy, four hopeless characters end up in an idiotic, painful game, in which the traits of resistance torment and torment each other in a desperate endlessness as they search desperately for the meaning of life and death.

Lars Mikkelsen is Hamm, the master of the house with galloping death anxiety. He is locked to his chair, for he is both blind and paralyzed. Olaf Johannesen is his servant Clov, who is forced to put up with his unreasonable whims. Hamm can't stand, and Clov can't sit. In two trash cans live Hamm's nondescript old parents, played by Kirsten Olesen and Joen Bille. From here they tell sentimental anecdotes in an excruciating infinity. Together they are trapped in a claustrophobic room with windows placed so high up that Clov has to use a ladder every time he is ordered to report what he sees outside. Clov sees only emptiness — a world destroyed and abandoned.

Recommended from 12 years