Although in her late forties, eco-warrior Halla is an all-action woman: she thinks nothing of yomping across the Icelandic countryside, wading through icy streams and even disguising herself with a dead ram's carcass as she wages her campaign against heavy industry. But when a long-forgotten application to become an adoptive parent suddenly proves successful, Halla has to step up her campaign just as the police start getting more hi-tech...
I will deal with the bad points first: a three-piece band (sometimes with a choir in what I think are Ukrainian traditional costumes - the film is part-financed by Ukraine) are frequently seen on-screen as they provide the background music. They are in the countryside, at the airport, in Halla's flat... while this is a device that is amusing the first time it is used - and is perhaps supposed to indicate Halla's feeling of increasingly being oppressed as the authorities get closer - the viewer ends up feeling oppressed too. Secondly, although brief mention is made of the benefits of development, the overall tenet of the film leans so heavily in the direction of environmentalism that it is very one-sided: for instance, the final shot of the band (oh, blessed relief!) sees their background of pristine Icelandic countryside transform into a dirty industrial landscape, and the last scene of the entire film has a group of bus passengers forced to abandon their vehicle and wade through flooding caused, I suppose, by climate change. I actually agree with the environmental argument, but in a work of fiction would prefer not to be preached at.
On the other hand, a film with an active middle-aged woman as the main character is unusual. Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir is engaging as Halla (and also plays Halla's New Age sister). The Icelandic scenery is as bleakly magnificent as always - indeed, the film could almost act as a tourism advertisement for Iceland, if it did not also suggest visitors to the country will spend their time being wrongly arrested for crimes committed by local eco-warriors...
I will deal with the bad points first: a three-piece band (sometimes with a choir in what I think are Ukrainian traditional costumes - the film is part-financed by Ukraine) are frequently seen on-screen as they provide the background music. They are in the countryside, at the airport, in Halla's flat... while this is a device that is amusing the first time it is used - and is perhaps supposed to indicate Halla's feeling of increasingly being oppressed as the authorities get closer - the viewer ends up feeling oppressed too. Secondly, although brief mention is made of the benefits of development, the overall tenet of the film leans so heavily in the direction of environmentalism that it is very one-sided: for instance, the final shot of the band (oh, blessed relief!) sees their background of pristine Icelandic countryside transform into a dirty industrial landscape, and the last scene of the entire film has a group of bus passengers forced to abandon their vehicle and wade through flooding caused, I suppose, by climate change. I actually agree with the environmental argument, but in a work of fiction would prefer not to be preached at.
On the other hand, a film with an active middle-aged woman as the main character is unusual. Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir is engaging as Halla (and also plays Halla's New Age sister). The Icelandic scenery is as bleakly magnificent as always - indeed, the film could almost act as a tourism advertisement for Iceland, if it did not also suggest visitors to the country will spend their time being wrongly arrested for crimes committed by local eco-warriors...