The Sea (Hafid) | Review

Kormákur packages high quality drama with a little noir.

Nordic winters are rough, especially when your homeland goes by the very appropriate name of Iceland. Filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur returns to what he knows best-making films about people who struggle within the backdrop of his home-and the familiar terrain known best to him. Long winters make for very little light and with a lack of vegetational color schemes we are instead witness to the textured crystal colors of white, black and blue. A deliberate choice from the auteur-as the ice-caps and deep blue skies create an almost visual sense of despair, -and this matches the film subject matter a mood. The people from the small fishing village destined to be instinct are struggling to survive and like a hole in a sweater- if you don’t repair it then it will eventually become bigger. Like the climate of the country and more particularly its icy cold waters, this is about also about a family reunion that ends up being just as rocky, unpredictable and turbulent as the blue stuff that surrounds the fishing village.

The Sea is a film about change-change in an industry where technology and production overrule quality and traditional business practices passed down by Iceland’s forefathers. Like Kormákur previous oeuvre, the brilliant 101 Reykjavik, this is also about family dysfunction with a lot of noir comedy elements enrolled in a drama soufflé which is both heart wrenching and liberating in the same time. Thordur (Gunnar Eyjólfsson) is the not only the patriarch figure of the family but he is the head of a fishing processing plant-a business that has been passed down to him from one generation to the next. Agust (Hilmir Snær Guðnason-The Idiot) the younger son makes the big trip from Paris with his pregnant girlfriend (Hélène de Fougerolles-The Beach) to ultimately decline the offer-but for what reason? With “one foot in the grave” everyone takes liberty of saying the things that ought not to be said and when the emotional bombs are dropped –they reveal deeply hidden secrets bringing the film’s closing stages to a fine climax. No wonder the alcoholic grandmother purposely wears a set of headphones.

Like “101”, Kormákur seeks out the truth from his cast of players- the characters are vivid and dynamic and treated as truthful representations of the typical family with a dark secret or two. The frame makes the screen personas even bigger thus offering the viewer a first row seat into this madness. The Sea is an excellent follow-up to his last picture, – perhaps a larger cast of players and the more space makes it a less personal film, but this sophomore pic remains an accomplished film by an accomplished filmmaker and should be checked out by anyone who enjoys these “Secrets and Lies” type of family drama.

Icelandic language with English Subtitles

Rating 3 stars