Director: Mahalia Belo
Writers: Alice Birch, Megan Hunter
Stars: Jodie Comer, Joel Fry, Benedict Cumberbatch
Synopsis: A woman tries to find her way home with her newborn while an environmental crisis submerges London in floodwaters.
“If our lives were to flood, what are the moments that would float to the surface?” – Lucille Clifton.
Raven Jackson opened her extraordinary film of Black identity, family, and place All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt with Lucille Clifton’s inquiry. Although vastly different films; Mahalia Belo’s The End We Start From asks the same question in a more literal manner. Jodie Comer plays an expectant mother (her name is “Woman”). She is taking a bath, immersed in water and stroking her swollen belly. Outside it is raining. In a short space of time, the rain will become an uncontrollable flood which demolishes her London home. Her waters will break, and her husband R (Joel Fry) will rush her to the hospital where she gives birth to their son.
The flood that R and Woman are experiencing is a country wide crisis. London is no longer inhabitable, and people are fleeing to rural areas and higher ground. R is from a self-sufficient family and because he is returning to his home village and because Woman is cradling the newly born Zeb, the police and army manning the roadblocks let them through.
For a short while, R and Woman are safe enough with R’s parents (Mark Strong and Nina Sosanya). However, eventually their supplies run out and the rot of the water seeping through the ground means that their garden is no longer flourishing. Leaving Woman and Zeb in the house, R and his parents seek food from emergency shelters and government facilities. Britain is in a state of ecological crisis and people have lost their sense of “civility.” R and his father return broken by the experience. The once gentle and sanguine R becomes hushed and bruised by trauma he cannot articulate. The audience and Woman become aware of the ferocious calamity happening in populated areas. Britain is a crisis zone and death, looting, and violence are all that awaits.
Yet, R and Woman must take Zeb with them and find crisis accommodation before they starve. Woman is no longer able to breastfeed as she is starving. R is disoriented. Jodie Comer’s seeking eyes take in the broken world with incomprehension. She was once a hairstylist living in London. She had no preparation for an apocalypse. But then again, who really does?
Separated from R at one of the emergency shelters, she becomes friends with O (Katherine Waterson) who is also a mother to a young child. They bond over not only the weight of the crisis they are witnessing but the pressures of motherhood itself. O is far more cynical and rebellious than Woman. O’s embracing determination leads to Woman and O moving across the country to find a safe harbour commune run by a former financial scion. “Rich people who make artisan bread,” O quips. However, the island commune is somewhere they can raise their children safely and escape a world gone mad.
As Woman and O undertake their perilous journey to the commune, they come across those who would harm and those who will help. One person who helps is an unnamed man (Benedict Cumberbatch) who is going in the opposite direction. He feeds O, Woman, and their children. They dance and drink to find a small respite from the horrors they have faced. He tells the women that the commune exists, and it is the safest place to raise their children. When Woman asks why he isn’t there himself, he tells them it is because the commune wants to cut itself off from reality. It doesn’t want to remember. The only way he can honor his lost wife and family is to return to where they disappeared.
Essentially what Belo and screenwriter Alice Birch are asking is, what do you sacrifice to survive? What must you do to protect an innocent from the worst aspects of humanity? At times Woman is that innocent, at others it is Zeb, and it had formerly been R and his parents. Jodie Comer plays Woman with such a commanding presence. Every emotion Woman feels is expressed with complete legitimacy. When Comer is joyful the audience feels the tension slip away, even if it is only momentarily. When she is afraid, we are not only afraid for her but of the reality she is facing. The balance between Comer and Waterson’s personalities is exquisite. They both take turns of being mothers not only to each other’s children but themselves.
As Woman flashes back to her life with R, we find out that she was revitalized by his presence. She suffered intense depression soon after they met because of the sudden death of her parents. Their quickly flirtatious romance became deeper because he was her caregiver. Her fear of death inspired her to have a child, “Something I could protect. Something I would die for.”
All of Woman’s decisions begin to have a logic to them. Leaving one place of protection to find a better one, even if that means extreme risk. She is fighting to safeguard her family. There is both a micro and macro reading of The End We Start From. In a time of disaster, everyone is fighting to stay alive. It can be a collective effort or individualist. On a smaller scale it is asking what a woman, specifically named “Woman,” will do to keep those she loves safe and together. When the world floods – what do you save?
Mahalia Belo’s debut feature is beautifully shot by Suzie Lavelle who points her camera towards not only the landscape of a waterlogged Britain, but also at Comer’s face which is perhaps the strongest narrative device in the film. It is modestly budgeted, and Belo uses her most expensive shots very well. Waterson, Fry, and side actors such as Gina McKee, Mark Strong, and Benedict Cumberbatch all turn in solid performances. However, without Jodie Comer there would be little to distinguish The End We Start From in relation to many other crisis-dystopia narratives.
The End We Start From is adapted from Megan Hunter’s novel of the same name. The novel itself was episodic and sparse and Birch has tried to fill in the ellipses of Hunter’s writing and translate them into an effective script. Ultimately, the film does get lost in places and begins to meander. The audience can understand the metaphors of water, motherhood, survival, and catastrophe. The idea of a world suddenly exploded both by a new life which requires constant care and the background of a land sinking beneath everyone’s feet leaving them disconnected, desperate, and confused. The End We Start From is a little too concerned with telling the audience what is going on rather than letting them infer what is quite apparent. Ultimately, any time spent with Jodie Comer giving a serious dramatic performance is never wasted, and The End We Start From utilizes her prodigious talent.
