Hvítur, hvítur dagur / A White White Day (2019)

Director: Hlynur Pálmason
Starring: Ingvar Sigurdsson, Ida Mekkin Hlynsdottir, Sara Dogg Asgeirsdottir. Iceland. 1h 49m

It doesn’t take long to get a good grasp of the top talent in Iceland, not only does a majority of the movies released there really hit a nerve and the industry continues to release one banger after the next, but with such a tiny population you’re going to see a lot of repeat offenders and not surprisingly a lot of the more popular faces have buckets of incredible talent and some of those come together in this study of grief.

Hostel Part II (2007)

Director: Eli Roth
Starring:Lauren German, Roger Bart, Heather Matarazzo, Bijou Phillips, Richard Burgi, Jay Hernandez, Edwige Fenech . USA/Slovakia/Iceland. 1h 34m

After the success of his 2005 slaherific body horror gore fest Hostel, Eli Roth returns with arguably much of the same but with a trio of girls at the helm of a hellride in Europe. There are some cute nods to the colourful survivors from the previous movie however I feel that Roth only gives us the same level of gore as before, rather than taking the film to higher levels of stomach churning buckets of blood, he plays it off with an intelligent and considered movie which expands the Hostile “universe” before it’s all shat down the pan in the third and final movie (to date).

Bokeh (2016)

Directors: Geoffrey Orthwein and Andrew Sullivan.
Starring. Maika Monroe, Matt O’Leary, Arnar Jonsson. USA/Iceland. 1h 44m.

Every now and again there is new renaissance of post apocalyptic films, most of them are pretty horrific, some rely heavily on sci fi and others are intense dramas, and then there is Bokeh which is just a bit dull..

Starting with a young couple, deeply in love and on a romantic trip to Iceland, the atmosphere is really warm and inviting, they seem amazingly bright and brilliant showing all the love and warmth that you’d expect when young love is on the cards. The couple make the most of their first day, going on tours and meeting a local priest, learning about the thriving history and culture.