Godland

Godland is an aptly depicted journey through the Icelandic wilderness without Gore-Tex. Meditative and very slow, but atmospherically engaging and with a supporting plot premise, it is a bit reminiscent of Scorsese’s Silence. The very idea of basing a story on real historical photographs taken by a vanished priest is interesting. And with his careful composition in the “photographic” 4:3 format, Pálmason gives it remarkable content. Thought it’s only philosophically suggestive, it is interesting and valuable. Edit: The filmmakers revealed in discussions that the photographs weren't real. Hmm. I just didn't expect such a creative approach with this film... [KVIFF] (07/03/2022)

Anything Icelandic is right up my alley. Forgotten Land, however, captivates more with its stunning shots of the Icelandic landscape than with its emotional depth, which seems somewhat neglected. Over the course of two hours, you watch various people behaving in a cold and reserved manner, occasionally opening their hearts – or pulling out a knife. (09/07/2023)

Boreland. Unless you analyze it artistically, you won't find the film of the year here, unlike some others. This disgustingly overwrought journey through 19th century Iceland almost put me to sleep, even though it was the very first screening of this year's KVIFF. The development of the characters was vague, the denouement of the conflicting lines felt out of place, I didn't get the reason of the outcome (that escalated quickly). The cinematography is of course beautiful, but you'd have to be a complete moron to fuck up shots of the Icelandic landscape. Objectively, it's not really a two-star film, but I've been running out of patience with unreasonably long runtimes lately, and here the 138 minutes really weren't used effectively. So you’re getting two stars, Hlynur, and search your conscience. (56th KVIFF) (07/10/2022)

Wandering through the Icelandic landscape has to be engaging, and the overlong runtime wasn't a problem for me. I had problems with characterisation of the characters, though, because the main (anti)hero is an uninteresting miserable wretch, and after a subdued two hours of wandering through the wilderness, his further actions and the subsequent backlash of the other characters in the last sixth of the film seemed to fall out of the blue, and I didn't feel that they were heading in that direction in any way, even covertly. Nicely shot, inconsistent in content. [KVIFF 2022] (07/10/2022)