An unattributed missile is launched at the US, setting off a desperate effort inside the White House to determine who fired it and how to respond. That is the premise of Kathryn Bigelow's political thriller A House of Dynamite, which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival before a Netflix rollout.
The film marks a return to the large-scale, geopolitically attuned storytelling that made Bigelow one of the most decorated directors of her generation. Her previous works include The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, and the cult classics Point Break and Near Dark.
Bigelow, 73, said: 'I grew up in an era when hiding under your school desk was considered the go-to protocol for surviving an atomic bomb. Today, the danger has only escalated. Multiple nations possess enough nuclear weapons to end civilisation within minutes. And yet, there's a kind of collective numbness – a quiet normalisation of the unthinkable.'
Bigelow won the Oscar for best director for The Hurt Locker, becoming the first woman to win that prize. Her follow-up, Zero Dark Thirty, provoked controversy for its depiction of enhanced interrogation techniques. Bigelow defended the film, writing: 'Depiction is not endorsement.'
