Jusqu'au déclin/The Decline (2020)

A young man fascinated with survivalist culture, looking to protect his family, attends a training camp with a survivalist leader when the camp becomes divided after a tragedy and he has to fight to survive the camp itself. This tense deconstruction of paranoid militaristic culture is fascinating both as a thriller and as a look at the troubling nature of the mix of xenophobia and weapons fetishization.

The film follows the group of people who come together and bond over their fears and their apocalyptic idealization. They create a kind of family based on who is not part of who they are. Then when something happens they quickly turn on each other. Their culture of distrust and blame explodes onto themselves. The film becomes an analogy for building an identity and a culture on fear of the other, on celebrating violence and weapons as a tool for solutions, and on individualism. The culture falls apart, and until people can start working for a greater good, they all go down. All of their sills at surviving on their own don't help when their problems arise from not being able to trust each other.

The film also works on the level of thriller. As the parties reach their conflicts the film becomes a more and more intense game of cat and mouse. The film's northern forested setting makes for a beautiful backdrop to the action, also creating both the sense of claustrophobia as well as the isolation necessary for the story. The film's short running time keeps the action tight. The Decline quite expertly puts you edge of your seat.

The Decline is an exciting debut for first time feature director Laliberte. I'm eager to see what he can do next.

Jusqu'au déclin/The Decline 
Starring: Guillaume Laurin, Real Bosse, Marc-Andre Grondin
Director: Patrice Laliberte
Writers: Charles Dion, Nicholas Krief, Patrice Laliberte