Scrape away all of the apocalyptic trappings and you have a beautiful microcosmic story about the nature of parenthood and childhood. The father, as fathers do, expends all of his energies to protect, care for, and teach the child to be a man, and "carry the fire" for ....and here is the hope....the next generation. And, as so often happens, the father learns from the son. In the end, as so often happens, the son cares for the ailing father, and carries on with an eye toward hope.This film has a cold, colorless,dark exterior with a warm, vital, hopeful core.