Toronto 2018 Review: The World Moves On in EVER AFTER

What do you do when the future holds nothing but just attempting the most basic survival? When your world has shrunk to a handful of strangers, none of whom have much hope that life will be improving in anyone's lifetime? And your memories consist of nothing but one terrible mistake? Would you make the most of the situation, or dare to do something drastic, even if it might cost you your life?

Director Carolina Hellsgård and writer Olivia Vieweg explore these philosophical questions in Ever After. Using a viral outbreak and the collapse of civilization as a starting point, the story take these concerns about how we should live out our final days into a dangerous wilderness and its affect on two very different women.

In the years following a zombie-like apocalypse, there are two cities that have managed to remain intact: Weimar and Jura. In Weimar, Vivi (Gro Swantje Kohlhof) is haunted by memories of her sister (presumed dead in the disaster), and so volunteers to help repair the perimeter wall. While there, she meets Eva (Maja Lehrer), and hardened veteran who nevertheless still tries to keep hope alive. After a gruesome death, both women finds themselves on the same automated train, in a possibly vain and definitely dangerous attempt to get to Jura.

What follows is a strange horror fairy tale adventure, as Vivi and Eva slowly reveal their true reasons for escape, and face both the nightmare of wild zombies, and the beauty of the earth, now reclaimed by nature. Eva is well-used to protecting herself from these creatures, and reluctantly but ably helps Vivi, who too often collapses into hysterics, having lead to sheltered a life that is now traumatized by her sister's death.

When they are not avoiding or fighting the zombies, Vivi and Eva slowly make their way to Jura, talking as they go about why they should keep going in a world devoid of meaning, trapped in either one city or another, where even basic survival is not a certainty. Even if it is just to complete a small but necessary act, or to find forgiveness, or a moment of respite, would it matter?

Nature is taking over this world; not just over the buildings and human object now littering the ground in obsolescence, but also the people. Vivi and Eva meet a woman who is part-plant, who seems to be a new hybrid of human and nature, that insists this is the future of humankind, at the will of nature, rather than the opposite.

While there are some good action scenes, with a few more than decent kills, Ever After thrives on its quiet, contemplative moments, with gorgeous cinematography by Leah Striker that puts this resurgance of nature in the glorious light and colour it deserves. Even if Vivi and Eva reach the great city, it is perhaps time to leave it behind.