Wayward Heroes: A Survey of Modern Icelandic Cinema
Screening Dates
  • June 13, 2019 9:00
  • June 15, 2019 6:30

“An unusually forceful and thought-provoking thriller.”

A.O. Scott, New York Times

Based on the bestseller by Icelandic crime novelist Arnaldur Indridason, Baltasar Kormákur’s Jar City announced the mini-boom of ​“Nordic noirs” that would gain huge international exposure with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Called in to investigate ​“a typical Icelandic murder: bloody and pointless,” hard-bitten, chain-smoking detective Erlendur (Ingvar E. Sigurdsson) discovers that the victim is connected to some nefarious goings-on three decades previously involving a dead child, a crooked cop, and an imprisoned criminal famous as ​“the most notorious maniac in Iceland.” In a parallel story, Örn (Atli Rafn Sigurdsson), a pathologist, desperately searches for the cause of his little daughter’s incurable hereditary disease. The motif of the past haunting the present through an inherited genetic ​“deviation” is a recurring Baltasar Kormákur theme.

Grand Prize, Karlovy Vary, 2007

Note

Film note adapted from texts written by Steve Gravestock, edited by Andrew Tracy, and provided by TIFF.