A WHITE, WHITE DAY
A grieving widower becomes dangerously preoccupied with uncovering his late wife’s secrets in this powerful and hauntingly beautiful drama set in remote, rural Iceland.
On the face of it, middle-aged ex-cop Ingimundur (Ingvar Sigurðsson) is the picture of traditional Nordic manhood. He’s strong and handy enough to have spent years building and tinkering with his house in a rugged corner of Iceland, yet he’s a gentle caretaker with a soft spot for his precocious granddaughter Salka (Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir). But there’s something disquieting simmering beneath Ingimundur’s stoic façade. His wife died unexpectedly two years ago and, though he obstinately refuses to divulge his feelings to his therapist, Ingimundur is obsessed with the thought of his wife’s potential infidelity. His behavior grows erratic as he becomes fixated on revenge, eventually putting his well-being, and that of his granddaughter, in the balance. Sigurðsson delivers an astounding performance as a man whose pent-up sorrow and guilt only find an outlet in brute force and violence. Building upon the strengths of his unsettling, assured debut Winter Brothers, Hlynur Pálmason’s second feature reaffirms his place as one of cinema’s most exciting young talents. A White, White Day is a film of rare formal ambition, yet Pálmason’s rigorous visual style is ultimately in service of a wrenchingly emotional story.
CAST: INGVAR SIGURÐSSON, IDA MEKKIN HLYNSDÓTTIR, HILMIR SNÆR GUÐNASON, BJÖRN INGI HILMARSSON
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