We Bury the Dead (2026)

We Bury the Dead takes place after a sudden catastrophe wipes out most of the population, leaving behind silent streets, scattered survivors, and an overwhelming number of bodies that no one is prepared to deal with. The story follows a woman searching for her missing partner as she joins a grim cleanup unit tasked with locating, identifying, and burying the dead left behind by the disaster. What starts as a practical job quickly becomes emotionally exhausting, with every assignment forcing the group to confront loss on an industrial scale. As they move through abandoned suburbs, damaged infrastructure, and temporary camps, the line between the living and the dead feels uncomfortably thin. Survivors cling to routines as a way to stay sane, even as supplies run low and morale cracks under the weight of constant grief. The film focuses on quiet tension rather than nonstop action, using long stretches of silence, broken conversations, and uneasy cooperation to show how trauma reshapes people. Rumours spread about what caused the catastrophe and about what still might be out there, creating fear that goes beyond the visible destruction. Trust becomes fragile, especially when different groups of survivors clash over resources, priorities, and how much the past should still matter. The search for a single person slowly turns into something larger, forcing the central character to question how far hope can realistically stretch in a place built on mass loss. Encounters with other survivors reveal different coping methods, from denial to rigid control, and each one reflects a possible future she could fall into. The act of burying the dead becomes symbolic rather than procedural, representing an attempt to restore dignity and order when everything familiar has collapsed. As the story progresses, moral choices replace simple survival instincts, with characters forced to decide what they owe to each other and to those who did not make it. The plot steadily tightens through difficult discoveries and moments of connection that feel rare and fragile, keeping the focus on human cost instead of spectacle. By the end, the film frames survival as an emotional challenge as much as a physical one, showing that moving forward sometimes means accepting answers that are incomplete and learning how to live alongside grief rather than trying to outrun it.