Godland

BBFC RatingGodland

Showing: 07 April 2023 until 13 April 2023

Show Times

Select a time below to book

Fri 7 Apr 2023
Sat 8 Apr 2023
Sun 9 Apr 2023
Mon 10 Apr 2023
Tue 11 Apr 2023
Wed 12 Apr 2023
Thu 13 Apr 2023

Certificate12A
Year2022
GenreDrama
Director(s)Hlynur Pálmason
Writer(s)Hlynur Pálmason
LanguageDanish, Icelandic
CountryDenmark, Iceland, France, Sweden
Running Time2HR 18MINS
SeasonMain Programme

With his third feature, Hlynur Pálmason (A White, White Day) delivers a breathtakingly inventive and ambitious historical epic, set in mid-19th-century Iceland.

A young Danish priest is sent to a remote Icelandic outpost to establish a church. Convinced of his moral purpose and fortitude, he travels via the most treacherous route to document the country’s stark beauty with his silver plate photography. It’s a dangerous crossing, guided by locals who disdain their Danish colonisers.

Godland is a film to be savoured on the big screen. Shot with a sumptuous square image and soft rounded corners, Pálmason detours to capture exploding volcanoes, a decaying horse carcass and landscapes that shift from fecund to frosty. The result is part-travelogue, part-western, part-austere Nordic drama in the tradition of Bergman and Dreyer. Craggy Elliot Crossett Hove (Winter Brothers) mesmerises as the priest; an awkward, soft-bellied fellow, transformed by hardship into a steelier version of himself, who might not necessarily be a force for good.

Text by Tricia Tuttle, BFI London Film Festival

"With Godland, Pálmason has enlisted us for a voyage of visual splendor, as terrifying as it is breathtaking, and divine contemplation." indieWire