“It’s terribly beautiful,” says a troubled Danish priest in this 19th-century questing tale from Icelandic writer-director Hlynur Pálmason, whose previous film A White, White Day was his country’s official submission for the 92nd Academy Awards. “Yes, it’s terrible,” comes the reply, “… and beautiful.” It’s a subtle distinction, but one that lies at the heart of Pálmason’s quietly soul-shaking and wryly satirical epic, a cinematic tone poem that the film-maker describes as being “about inner and outer conflicts”, about miscommunication, and “a journey into ambition, love and faith, and the fear of God”.
Elliott Crosset Hove plays an ambitious and zealous young Lutheran priest, Lucas, who is tasked by his superiors with travelling from Denmark to the remote wilds of colonised Iceland to set up a church. His destination may be under Danish rule but the two territories are worlds apart, in every sense. As Lucas is told, his journey will bring him face-to-face with a world that is “very different” from the one he knows, whether it’s “the people, the weather”, or a volcano that smells like “the Earth has shat its pants”. Crucially, Lucas must learn to “adapt” rather than lose his mind – something that proves harder than expected for this stern-faced soul, whose faith starts to crack when confronted with the harsh majesty of God’s creation. No wonder the film’s original title (inspired by a poem by Matthías Jochumsson, significantly presented on screen in both Danish and Icelandic) translates more accurately as “Wretched Land”.
