Director: Caitlin Cronenberg
Some dinner-table arguments end with someone storming off; the one in Humane ends with a family deciding who among them has to die that night.
What is Humane about?
Set after an environmental collapse so severe that governments have mandated a population reduction of twenty percent, the film gathers a fractured family for what should be an ordinary dinner. The father, a former news anchor, announces he and his wife have volunteered for the state's new euthanasia program, expecting a dignified send-off from his adult children. When the arrangement goes wrong at the worst possible moment, the siblings are left to decide among themselves who will make up the shortfall, and old grudges, favoritism, and resentment resurface as the night spirals from dark comedy into something far more desperate. The house itself becomes a pressure cooker, with each sibling forced to reveal exactly how far they will go to avoid being the one who doesn't make it to morning.
Cast & crew
Jay Baruchel and Emily Hampshire lead the sibling group as the night's uneasy alliances shift, with Peter Gallagher playing the father whose decision sets the crisis in motion. Enrico Colantoni, Sebastian Chacon, Alanna Bale, Sirena Gulamgaus, and Uni Park round out the household drawn into the escalating standoff.
Context & significance
Humane is the feature directorial debut of Caitlin Cronenberg, working from a screenplay by Michael Sparaga, and it uses a single confined house setting to keep the family's collapse claustrophobic rather than sprawling. Released in 2024 with a 93-minute runtime, the film sits in a lineage of satirical horror that uses a manufactured social crisis as a pressure test for family loyalty, treating polite dinner-party etiquette as just another layer of tension waiting to crack.
Where & how to watch
Humane is available on K-Time with a free account login, and the platform's Persian dubbing and subtitle options let Farsi-speaking viewers follow the film's escalating dinner-table tension without missing its darker, satirical edges.