"Everything will be okay. Soon, flowers and grasses will grow and you will be in them... and that's beautiful."
Godland has that immersive quality often present in great films (or books!) - it completely transports the viewer to another time and place, in this case, 19th century Iceland. To say the images director Hlynur Pálmason and cinematographer Maria von Hausswolff give us are stunning hardly seems sufficient; this is a gorgeous film. It's the simple story of a Danish priest (Elliott Crosset Hove) who is sent to establish a church in a remote part of Iceland, guided by an irascible local (Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson) who soon becomes a rival of sorts. The priest has a passion for photography, and he hardly seems like an enlightened gentle soul, gradually slipping into the ways of the wild, rugged world around him with each step of his journey. Each character and performance are wonderful in lean, restrained ways, in keeping with the tone of the movie, and the director's real-life daughter (Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir) seems like one to watch for. The film is 142 minutes and there are scenes with long takes, but each moment seemed to matter, and I was transfixed. Great film.
Godland has that immersive quality often present in great films (or books!) - it completely transports the viewer to another time and place, in this case, 19th century Iceland. To say the images director Hlynur Pálmason and cinematographer Maria von Hausswolff give us are stunning hardly seems sufficient; this is a gorgeous film. It's the simple story of a Danish priest (Elliott Crosset Hove) who is sent to establish a church in a remote part of Iceland, guided by an irascible local (Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson) who soon becomes a rival of sorts. The priest has a passion for photography, and he hardly seems like an enlightened gentle soul, gradually slipping into the ways of the wild, rugged world around him with each step of his journey. Each character and performance are wonderful in lean, restrained ways, in keeping with the tone of the movie, and the director's real-life daughter (Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir) seems like one to watch for. The film is 142 minutes and there are scenes with long takes, but each moment seemed to matter, and I was transfixed. Great film.