Written and Directed by Rúnar Rúnarsson | 82 min | ▲▲▲▲ | On VOD 

An earlier version of this review appeared on FITI during the Atlantic International Film Festival 2024.

Here’s a film that came and went in the 2024 festival season, but never got a theatrical release here in Nova Scotia. More’s the shame — it’s a lovely,  sad, and gorgeous work that really shines on the big screen.

Icelandic filmmaker Rúnar Rúnarsson tells a story of sudden, unbearable grief amongst an ensemble of students. Diddi (Baldur Einarsson) and Una (Elín Hall) go to an art college and are in a band. They’re in love and planning for their future together, but first Diddi has to break up with his long-distance girlfriend, Klara (Katla Njálsdóttir). On the way to do so he’s in a car crash and is killed — leaving Una devastated and seeking comfort in their mutual friends. That’s when Klara comes into town to join them, and Una has to bite her tongue about what was going on between her and Diddi — the legitimacy of Una and Diddi’s relationship shattered by Klara’s arrival, adding an extra layer of silent suffering.

The entire film takes place over a single day and a scant 82 minutes, but still manages to punch way above its weight in the emotional stakes. Much credit needs to go to Hall’s Una, and the camerawork that keeps her emotive face in the centre of the screen for much of the running time. Rúnarsson bring’s Una’s and Klara’s faces together in a gorgeous sequence during the final 10 minutes. One shot overlays their eyes in the reflection of a window — its a filmmaking choice that says more than any dialogue could.