Beautiful landscapes, beautifully filmed, with a vibrant and charismatic Woody Norman at the centre. The film is based on David Vann’s autobiographical novella Sukkwan Island about a divorced father who wants to take his son to a remote cabin in the Finnish fjords to bond with him. The boy chooses not to go. The father commits suicide and the film is a re-imagining by the son, ten years later, of what might have happened had he indeed gone. I’ve rarely seen such poor visual story-telling, with clearly not a though as to how an audience might react to various moments. It is grim, sometimes assaultive, and ultimately dishonest too. Swann Arlaud is not up to the part and merely comes across as self-indulgent, whiny and overly self-involved at the expense of his son’s needs. Not surprised I was the only person viewing it at the ICA yesterday.
José Arroyo
