Powerful portrait of a young woman's struggle to cope with the sudden loss of a beloved brother.
The movie begins poignantly, with death that descends out of nowhere, to a bucolic field in Iceland.
Thora Bjorg Helga (as Hera) leads a wonderful cast that includes Icelandic cinema's middle-aged dreamboat, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, as a guilt-ridden dad, and Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir as his wife. I also enjoyed Hannes Óli Ágústsson as Knútur, a local guy who shows interest in Hera even though she's odd.
I'll see any movie that's shot in Iceland, and really enjoyed the scenery here. I just wish I knew where that snowscape was filmed -- could it have been Iceland's forbidding Highlands? If so, it's not realistic that our heroine ventured where few could survive...
Normally with an Icelandic film I hungrily grasp for snippets of the language, which I've been trying to learn. I was at a loss here, as the only version I could find had French subtitles, and I was so busy deciphering them I missed most of the native tongue. But I got the gist. Thankfully, the dialogue in this film is no-frills, just like the terrain.
As a 67-year-old mom and professional person, I wouldn't have given metal a chance if this film wasn't set in my favorite foreign land. But the movie does well in showing how such a loud and tortured form of -- can we call it "art?" -- can offer catharsis to someone in pain. The concert scene deftly displays how this musical form can draw anyone in. Now, that's a feat!
There are deeply evocative scenes in this film. That skillet full of steamy fish made me nostalgic for plates I've savored in Reykjavík and Ísafjöróur. And the final explosion of uninhibited dance -- I wanted to be there. Frábært!
The movie begins poignantly, with death that descends out of nowhere, to a bucolic field in Iceland.
Thora Bjorg Helga (as Hera) leads a wonderful cast that includes Icelandic cinema's middle-aged dreamboat, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, as a guilt-ridden dad, and Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir as his wife. I also enjoyed Hannes Óli Ágústsson as Knútur, a local guy who shows interest in Hera even though she's odd.
I'll see any movie that's shot in Iceland, and really enjoyed the scenery here. I just wish I knew where that snowscape was filmed -- could it have been Iceland's forbidding Highlands? If so, it's not realistic that our heroine ventured where few could survive...
Normally with an Icelandic film I hungrily grasp for snippets of the language, which I've been trying to learn. I was at a loss here, as the only version I could find had French subtitles, and I was so busy deciphering them I missed most of the native tongue. But I got the gist. Thankfully, the dialogue in this film is no-frills, just like the terrain.
As a 67-year-old mom and professional person, I wouldn't have given metal a chance if this film wasn't set in my favorite foreign land. But the movie does well in showing how such a loud and tortured form of -- can we call it "art?" -- can offer catharsis to someone in pain. The concert scene deftly displays how this musical form can draw anyone in. Now, that's a feat!
There are deeply evocative scenes in this film. That skillet full of steamy fish made me nostalgic for plates I've savored in Reykjavík and Ísafjöróur. And the final explosion of uninhibited dance -- I wanted to be there. Frábært!