Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz reunite on screen in Bunker, a film about love and isolation

Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz are sharing the screen again, this time as a wealthy married couple whose lives begin to fracture around the construction of a bunker in Hawaii. Bunker premiered Tuesday at the Venice Film Festival, where it entered the competition for the Golden Lion.

French director Florian Zeller said he considered working with the Spanish actors an honour. He wanted them together because their real-life relationship offered a unique way to capture something special between a couple and blur the line between reality and fiction. His aim, he said, was to approach the "burning authenticity of truth."

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an honor

Cruz said she was not afraid of the joint exposure on screen. The actors knew they would be protected by having someone between them, a director inviting them not to bring their private lives into the film.

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I was interested in having them together on screen because I thought it would be a unique way to capture something special as a couple in real life

The story follows Miguel, played by Bardem, and Sofía, played by Cruz, an affluent couple living in London with their two daughters. Their unity begins to crack when a technology magnate hires Miguel, an architect, to build a bunker in Hawaii as protection for himself. The decision over whether to accept the job exposes frustrations built up over years together.

The film extends that domestic conflict into a wider debate about the isolation of the rich, the gap between wealthy and poor people, and the surrender of one person's dreams to serve another's. It also addresses climate anxiety and the individualism of a magnate who became rich by connecting people through social media but now wants to isolate himself behind reinforced concrete.

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We knew we would be protected by having someone in the middle who was inviting us not to bring any of our personal lives

Bardem, a two-time Volpi Cup winner for best actor at Venice, asked whether societies are willing to isolate themselves and criminalise others by retreating into their own bunkers. He said the film also asks how much people are willing to see, feel and welcome in another person, rather than allowing fear, prejudice and imagined threats to drive isolation and dehumanisation. The answer, he suggested, requires accepting another person's needs, dreams and pain as part of one's own life, a step that demands significant sacrifice.

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How much are we willing to see, feel and welcome the other, or will our fear, based on what we imagine, our prejudices and our anxieties, determine how far we isolate, criminalise and dehumanise the other?