Nordic Watchlist reviews Hlynur Pálmason’s follow-up to Godland – The Love That Remains.
The Love That Remains is a beautiful film. It’s delightfully honest, funny, poetic, sometimes quite intense and others a little surreal. And it’s all set in wonderful Icelandic landscapes.
Selected as Iceland’s entry for Best International Feature Film at this year’s Oscars, The Love That Remains is the latest feature from acclaimed Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason. His previous works include the award-winning drama about grief and vengeance A White, White Day, and the equally highly praised tale of a Danish priest in nineteenth century Iceland Godland.
The Love That Remains follows a single year in the life of Anna, a talented but struggling artist, and fisherman Magnús as they divorce but remain bound by their three children — older daughter Ída, and twin sons, Þorgils and Grímur.
The film plays out through a series of intimate vignettes of daily routines, life struggles and moments of simple joy as the parents’ marital ties are broken. Love, loss and frustration are acted out with understated emotional depth.
It’s this emotional insight and sensitivity that is probably one of the strongest qualities of the film. And it really carries the main theme: what remains when romantic love fades. The two lead characters are played by Saga Garðarsdóttir and Sverrir Guðnason, who are utterly compelling in their portrayal of the affection, habit and shared responsibility that inevitably persist beyond separation. The film is ultimately all about love after love. Rather than a story of something ending, it’s about the realities of continuation.
The film’s dramatic landscapes, depictions of nature, and focus on the changing seasons are also integral to both its storytelling and obvious appeal to audiences. Often shot in 35mm, the film combines lengthy wide shots of Icelandic mountains, hillsides and farm land with equally lingering close-ups of flowers, vegetables and animals.
This is more than just a backdrop; the natural world and changing weather patterns reflect the moods and shifts within the family.
And the importance of the family and family life comes through strongly in ‘The Love That Remains’. The film opens with a family lunch, and the camera pans around the characters, introducing each one with the actor’s name. It’s a lovely touch that points to the important part each will play.
The family is depicted as something that, while it goes through many changes, is of fundamental importance. While out at sea, one of the fishermen gives Magnús a lecture on what it means to be a father, the responsibilities it bestows and the joys it brings.
The children are far from peripheral in the film – they are a key part of its storytelling and structure. Their mixture of insightful and innocent discussions about life really adds to the warmth and humour of the film.
The daughter, played by Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, demonstrates real Nordic female strength. She has a very clear grip on reality and thinks nothing of telling her father off for killing the family rooster on the instructions of her mother, who she describes as an “emotional artist”. ]
Despite this dismissive remark, the mother is equally strong and focused, and also takes her turn in chastising the father for being a disciplinarian out of a misguided sense of duty. Anna’s work as an artist adds another structural form within the film. We see her art being created outdoors in the sometimes harsh landscape, which is a metaphor for both self-expression and personal struggle.
The only aspect of The Love That Remains that has divided both audiences and critics is its use of surreal scenes and imagery, such as the giant rooster that attacks Magnús while he’s sleeping. On the positive side, these add to the film’s humour and highlight the absurdities of life. But on the negative side – that is frankly more dominant – they create a somewhat annoying distraction from what is otherwise a very natural and truly lovely film.
The Love That Remains will be out in UK Cinemas from the 13th March with Curzon
