Spanish stars Cruz, Bardem play strained on-screen couple in new film

Married stars Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem play a wealthy couple facing a mid-life crisis in their latest film, “Bunker”, insisting Tuesday that the story bears no resemblance to their real relationship.
The Hollywood duo, who began dating after appearing together in 2008’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”, portray a married couple in London struggling to balance two careers far from home.
Directed by French filmmaker Florian Zeller, the film, premiering Tuesday at the Venice Film Festival, also takes aim at Silicon Valley billionaires, a theme that drew Cruz and Bardem to the project.
Bardem plays a successful architect offered a lucrative contract to design an underground survival bunker for a Silicon Valley billionaire. Zeller said the story was inspired by Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg’s compound in Hawaii.
Asked whether the characters reflected their real relationship, Bardem said: “Nothing. We are really good at creating fiction and reality. Otherwise, we would not survive in this job.”
Cruz said she identified with her character’s criticism of technology billionaires behind social media and artificial intelligence, questioning whether their pursuit of technology has come at the expense of empathy.
“My hope is that young people are actually beginning to realise they’re being manipulated,” she said.
The couple, who have appeared together in around 10 films, said they have had to maintain a balance between their careers and family life.
Cruz praised Zeller for guiding them through the film’s emotionally intense scenes, while the director said the movie explores isolation, xenophobia and the growing influence of technology.
Cruz and Bardem last appeared together in Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows” in 2018.