Some filmmakers make blockbusters, others Indie horrors, but here comes an Icelandic filmmaker, Hlynur Pálmason, who makes art. His films dive deep into realistic human nature, whilst showing you beautiful, hypnotic landscapes at the same time. Common themes in Hlynur’s work are showing the building process or demolition of a house as means to show the growth or the journey of the story, as well as showing the “stage” of events during many different times throughout the year. With the camera always in the same spot, never moving, showing us both how beautiful, ruthless, fun and calming time can be.
Discover 5 Films by Hlynur Pálmason before the release of his new piece of work, The Love That Remains.
1. Winter Brothers
Hlynur Pálmason’s debut feature, Winter Brothers, is a visceral plunge into the frost-bitten isolation of a rural limestone factory. The film centres on two brothers, Emil and Johan, whose lives are defined by the rhythmic, mechanical hum of their labour and the violent chill of the Danish wilderness. It is a “lack of love story,” where the protagonist, Emil, is a misfit who harvests chemicals to make moonshine, searching for a sense of belonging that the harsh environment stubbornly refuses to provide. The film doesn’t just show you the cold; it makes you feel the grit of the chalk dust in your lungs and the shivering desperation of a man pushed to the periphery of his own life.
You can watch Winter Brothers on Amazon Prime (UK)
2. A White, White Day
This film got quite the reception at the Cannes Film Festival, with Ingvar E. Sigurðsson winning the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star award. The film follows an ex-cop, Ingimundur (Played by Ingvar E. Sigurðsson), as he spirals into obsession, trying to find out if there is any truth to the adultery rumours of his recently deceased wife.
The obsession soon escalates with horrible consequences. The nature around Ingimundur shows us exactly how he feels at any given moment; we see blinding fog, the same kind that shrouds the mind of an obsessed, tunnel-minded person. We see the mournful cold around him and the crumbling rocks that fall into his path. Ingvar E. Sigurðsson is one of those actors who can speak monologues with his piercing grey eyes alone.
3. Nest
A beautiful short film which sets the vibe for Hlynur’s future works. His ‘calling card,’ if you will, is an artistic showing of the same location through many different times and seasons. The camera literally does not move throughout the whole film, leaving the audience feeling like a tree, rooted in the ground, watching the seasons pass by, and life go on in front of its view. From this viewpoint, we see siblings build a cabin in a tree (the nest) and how the nest survives the harsh Icelandic winters and warm summers. The storytelling techniques that Hlynur uses here are breathtakingly clever. At one point, we feel so worried about one particular character that we want to rip our roots from the ground and go check on him.
This short film is a poem that should be on everybody’s watchlist.
4. Godland
Hlynur’s magnum opus. Diving into the strained and long relationship between Iceland and Denmark. Hlynur Pálmason, born and raised in Iceland but has lived and studied in Denmark as well, is probably the perfect director for this story.
The film follows the odyssey of a young Danish priest as he is sent to a remote part of Iceland on a church errand. On this odyssey, the young priest starts to lose himself and doubt his mission, as the stubbornness of the Icelanders and the hard, fatal weather conditions keep testing him. One of those stubborn rural Icelanders is being played by the previously mentioned actor Ingvar E. Sigurðsson, who excels in his performance.
The film won the Honourable Mention award at the BFI London Film Festival and was nominated at the Cannes Film Festival.
5. The Love that Remains
Panda the sheepdog won the Palm Dog award at Cannes that year. A dog has not stolen the spotlight of a film at this scale since Messi, the dog from Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
This film has all the usual calling cards from Hlynur that we love. There is a fantastic sequence of Hlynur’s kids building an armoured scarecrow and shooting it with bows and arrows. This sequence has been made into a film of its own called Joan of Arc.
The Love that Remains is about a family after a recent divorce, and true to Hlynur’s style, there is no heightened tension or drama; instead, this film shows us the realistic human response and aftermath, as people try to find their new rhythm.
The Love That Remains is out now in UK cinemas – you can read out review of the film HERE
