Godland

  • Men in winter clothes and capes dragging equipment out of the water and onto a deserted beach
  • A large group of men, women & children, all dressed in early 20th century garb pose for a picture in front of the frame of a building under construction
  • A young man in a cape and boots stands aside an old fashion camera, on a large, desolate ice field
  • A young man, looking down and a woman looking at the man, both bathed in red light
  • 3 men, 1 child, 1 woman, all dressed in early 20th Century garb and a dog stand on a desolate ice field with mountains in the background
  • A young man in a cape and boots with a backpack of sorts and walking stick looks straight ahead on a large ice field
  • A young blonde girl lays upon a horse in front of a barn in Godland

“Visually striking … takes the country’s colonialist past as its subject, pitting a late-19th-century man of faith against a force far stronger than him, like some kind of Arctic, art-house There Will Be Blood.” – Peter Debruge, Variety

“An accomplished, ambitious work which has a Herzogian fascination with vast, unforgiving landscapes, hubris and madness.” – Wendy Ide, Screen Daily

“The film’s considerable virtues, which range from breathtaking landscape photography to inhabited performances from a flawless cast, show Pálmason to be working at the height of his powers.” – Caspar Salmon, Sight & Sound

The struggle between the strictures of religion and our own brute animal nature plays out amid the beautifully forbidding landscapes of remote Iceland in this stunning psychological epic from director Hlynur Pálmason. In the late nineteenth century, Danish priest Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove) makes the perilous trek to Iceland’s southeastern coast with the intention of establishing a church. There, the arrogant man of God finds his resolve tested as he confronts the harsh terrain, temptations of the flesh, and the reality of being an intruder in an unforgiving land. What unfolds is a transfixing journey into the heart of colonial darkness attuned to both the majesty and terrifying power of the natural world.

Aspect ratio 1.33 : 1!

Runtime
2h 23m
Year
2022
Director
Hlynur Pálmason
Format
DCP
Language
In Icelandic and Danish w/ English subtitles
Categories
Featured
  • Assisted Listening