H. American Independents

Helen of Troy, New York, spends her days coddling creepy, ultra-realistic “reborn dolls” as her husband, Roy, quietly dreams of release from their 40-plus-year marriage. Meanwhile, another Helen of Troy, one half of a performance art duo with husband Alex, silently endures his intense self-involvement as they await the birth of their first child. Glasses begin to shatter unexpectedly, people drift into walking comas, objects fall upward and a crippling high-pitched shriek pierces the air. Then things get very, very weird. Developed through the Venice Biennale College and a hit at both the Sundance and Berlin film festivals, Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia’s unnerving end-time allegory brilliantly challenges the conventions of Hollywood’s recent spate of apocalypse narratives. Here, civilization’s end is defined not as hollowed-out cities and CG tidal waves but as an unfulfilled desire for motherhood and a longing for personal freedom. — Cedar Sherbert