Florian Zeller, director of Bunker, at AFI Fest 2026.
Photo: Elva Zevallos for LA ELEMENTS
HOLLYWOOD, CA (LA ELEMENTS) 10/29/2026 – Florian Zeller first gained international acclaim as a playwright. His trilogy– La Mère (The Mother), Le Père (The Father) and Le Fils (The Son)-examined the fragile bonds of family amidst mental and emotional decline. His screen adaptation of The Father, won the 2021 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Now, all eyes are on Bunker, his latest feature film starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. We caught up with Zeller on the red carpet at AFI Film Fest to discover more about the story behind the film.
As you were writing the screenplay, did you have Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem in mind for the leads?
Yes, I mean, I wrote the script for them. The desire to work with them was really the starting point of the journey of the film. And I really wanted to work with them because-should I really answer to that question? Because they are the greatest! I adore them. But also, I was really interested to have them together on screen because they are a real-life couple. I thought it would be a very interesting and unique opportunity to explore something about authenticity and about truth.
I understand that there is a fair amount of Spanish in your movie and you yourself don’t speak Spanish. So how did you handle those particular scenes?
I’m French, yes, so I speak French. But I had to learn a bit of Spanish to direct those particular scenes.
I haven’t seen the movie yet and I’m very much looking forward to tonight’s screening, but I know that there is literally a bunker involved in the film. Metaphorically, does the bunker stand for anything?
Yeah. The movie is about an architect who is asked to build a bunker for a tech billionaire, but it’s also about the kind of bunkers that we are building in our own lives. To be protected without realizing that it’s kind of a prison to be very disconnected from the others. I was trying to explore this temptation of isolation, which I think is one of the definition of the times that we are going through at the moment.
So the times that we’re going through at the moment are kind of reflected in your movie as well?
Yeah this is a film that is a contemporary film meaning that I’m trying to look at the world in the eyes.
And finally my last question, which filmmakers have inspired you as an artist?
So many! But maybe the one who had the most important influence on me was the filmmaker from LA, David Lynch, especially Mulholland Drive. He leaves a room for the audience to be part of the narrative and to make it meaningful and I love that! Not to do a film as a place for answers, but a film as a place for questions.
Click here for our review of Bunker.
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