Paris of the north takes us to a small village in the north of Iceland. There we follow the lead character, Hugi. Hugi is a school teacher who finds himself in this tiny village to try to recover from a marriage breakup that had him spiraling down into alcoholism and melancholy in Reykjavík (the capital). The village is tiny to the degree that the frequent Alcohol Anonymous attendees are three, including Hugi. The other two are Svanur, the father of the Erna, which Hugi had been seeing for few weeks, and Richard, the former partner of Erna. Erna and Richard have this 10-year old son, Albert, who has found some sort of a father figure in Hugi, since Richard is not as much of a father as he is a pot-smoker.
Although Hugi doesn't realize it immediately, he definitely carries around a lot of extra baggage, primarily his broken marriage and his remaining feeling towards his ex, preventing him from maintaining a relationship with Erna. Hugi's father, Thorfinnur, newly arrived from Thailand where he had grown tired of running a bar, sort of intrudes Hugi's already problem-filled life. Little is said about their previous relationship but most likely it was non- existent. After some time Hugi realizes that these living- arrangements cannot last forever if he wants to keep his sanity. Either he or his father will have to leave this small and quiet Northern Paris. Upon his father's arrival the audience is set to enjoy several comedic scenes. These scenes end up being the highlight of the film along with beautiful shots of the in-closing, surrounding landscape and the great music score by Prins Polo. Björn Thors does a decent job as Hugi but Sigurdur Skulason has to receive a big praise for his role as Svanur, the AA driving force who recites 12 step programs like he wrote them all. Helgi Björnsson is also great as the intruding father and source of dysphoria.
This comedic drama has some memorable scenes and clever dialogue mixed in the melancholic small-town life. However, everything happens at a small-town pace and sometimes it transmits to the audience although the film isn't particularly long. Furthermore it lacks a more concrete storyline, it feels more like a series of scenes than a coherent story.
6/10
Although Hugi doesn't realize it immediately, he definitely carries around a lot of extra baggage, primarily his broken marriage and his remaining feeling towards his ex, preventing him from maintaining a relationship with Erna. Hugi's father, Thorfinnur, newly arrived from Thailand where he had grown tired of running a bar, sort of intrudes Hugi's already problem-filled life. Little is said about their previous relationship but most likely it was non- existent. After some time Hugi realizes that these living- arrangements cannot last forever if he wants to keep his sanity. Either he or his father will have to leave this small and quiet Northern Paris. Upon his father's arrival the audience is set to enjoy several comedic scenes. These scenes end up being the highlight of the film along with beautiful shots of the in-closing, surrounding landscape and the great music score by Prins Polo. Björn Thors does a decent job as Hugi but Sigurdur Skulason has to receive a big praise for his role as Svanur, the AA driving force who recites 12 step programs like he wrote them all. Helgi Björnsson is also great as the intruding father and source of dysphoria.
This comedic drama has some memorable scenes and clever dialogue mixed in the melancholic small-town life. However, everything happens at a small-town pace and sometimes it transmits to the audience although the film isn't particularly long. Furthermore it lacks a more concrete storyline, it feels more like a series of scenes than a coherent story.
6/10
