A Scandinavian successor to Tarkovsky, Hlynur Pálmason has created deeply spiritual and troubling and cinematically breathtaking tales of men wrestling with their own futility. Here, a young Danish priest (played by the luminous Danish actor Elliott Crosset Hove) travels to Iceland, hoping to build a church and make photographs. His efforts are blunted by the irresistible forces of nature and his own arrogance. The scenes are luminous and awe-inspiring: a waterfall that vanishes before it reaches the surface, an animal carcass being subsumed into the earth … (Denmark-Iceland-France-Sweden 2022, 143m)
“Steadily gripping, often mordantly funny … Pálmason’s camera exalts in every magisterial frame … a source of never-ending awe.” –L.A. Times
