User Rating:5.8/10 IMDB
Director:Friðrik Þór Friðriksson
Writers:Friðrik Þór Friðriksson (writer)
Einar Kárason (writer)
Release Date:14 February 1987 (Iceland)
Scandinavian movies have always been a bit weird . Yet Cold Light is the first Scandinavian movie I saw that really made sense to me and I truly enjoyed my time in front of the screen. The movie focuses on the life of a man called Grimur – who tries to find his place in life . We see him in parallel as a sensitive young boy and a grown way and the director does a good job in making us thing how much the experiences we had in our childhood influences our personality as adults . I could say that in that sense the movie is a coming of age drama that emphasis on the human psychology .
Cold Light is an Icelandic film – and as such portrays the nature , traditions and lifestyle in this country in two different epocas. The film has an overall melancholic feeling from the opening scene ( which by the way is the most beautiful opening scene of a movie I have seen in a while ) to the final credits. First we are introduced to the adult Grimur – an artist who is attending courses to improve his drawing technique – but draws things as he sees them – not as he is expected to. Soon we see him as a boy growing up in a remote village in Iceland .
He is a sensitive boy with rich imagination and a special talent – he can see things in the future and is afraid of that ability of his . He express his visions in drawings – and becomes an artist at an early age. An old woman who he initially took for witch helps him to understand better himself saying that he does not have to fear things he is not familiar with. However he is remains frightened all his life…
The movie builds up tension gradually until one day Grimur has to face his fear and learn to deal with his past if he is about to have a future
The acting of the movie was exceptional – especially the one of Áslákur Ingvarsson as the young Grimor .
