Börn náttúrunnar; drama, Iceland / Norway / Germany, 1991; D: Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, S: Gísli Halldórsson, Sigríður Hagalín, Baldvin Halldórsson, Björn Karlsson, Bruno Ganz
Geiri (78) shoots his dog, packs his things and abandons his desolate farm. He goes to live in a Reykjavik apartment of his daughter, but since her teenage daughter argues with him, the family arranges that Geiri is transferred to an elderly home. There he meets Stella (79), his childhood friend. Together, they steal a car and drive off to die together at their childhood village on an island. The police tries to find them. They take a boat to the island and find the former fishermen outpost abandoned. Geiri finds Stella dead on the beach. He goes to the outpost and walks to the edge of a cliff, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
"Children of nature" is one of those movies that tackle the ultimate taboo: death, or better said, accepting the inevitability of it. The simple story about an old couple who decides to die together in the abandoned village of their birth is subtle, emotional, minimalist and humanistic, but also has a certain sense for directorial craftmanship that tries to imply and rely on the subconscious rather than on a clear narrative—in the first 10 minutes, there is no dialogue; in the last 20 minutes, there is no dialogue. Several contrasts imbibe the film: the protagonist Geiri leaves a rural area, his farm, to live in an urban area, a residential building; whereas the finale becomes almost metaphysical and negates the realistic approach up to it (Bruno Ganz is credited as "The Angel" and appears as a man in a black coat who puts his hand on Geiri's shoulder in the sequence in the abandoned building; a naked woman is waving from the shore at Geiri and Stella in a boat, as the sailor says: "There is no need to be afraid of her. She is just a ghost"). The nature plays a big role in the film, showing the landscapes as a journey whose end leads to its beginning, the birth place of the couple. The two lead actors give fine performances, and are given intimacy to understand them (for instance, while sleeping on the hay in the open, they have this exchange: "I wonder if it's the same moon that shone on us back in the old days?" - "I don't know. I don't think it has ever recovered since they started taking strolls up there"). "Children of Nature" suffers from at times an overstretched running time and slow pacing, yet as a meditative contemplation on the cycle of passing and death, it is shaped to work completely.
Grade:+++
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