“At once visually striking and emotionally austere, in its almost Bressonian restraint — [“Godland”] takes the country’s colonialist past as its subject, pitting a late-19th-century man of faith against a force far stronger than him, like some kind of Arctic, art-house ‘There Will Be Blood.’” – Peter Debruge, Variety
In the late 19th century, a young Danish priest named Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove) braves the unforgiving and relentless landscapes of the most remote places in Iceland to build a church and photograph its people. Travelling on land and water, he finds his resolve tested as he confronts the harsh terrain, temptations of the flesh, and the reality of being an intruder in an unforgiving land.
Director Hlynur Pálmason (“A White, White Day”) captures the landscapes of Iceland and the agony of his characters in equal parts, leading to a rich, beautiful, and poetic tale of how far one is ready to go for their purpose and mission, even if it means leaving your morality behind.
