Mark Reviews Movies: GODLAND

Godland, Janus Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | February 9, 2023

Iceland is "terribly beautiful," the priest says to a young woman at one point in Godland. "Yes, it's terrible," the woman responds, "and beautiful." The nature of the land and its inherently dichotomous existence, then, are matters of perspective, and the one chosen by writer/director Hlynur Pálmason doesn't quite do justice to the ambitious narrative and thematic scope of his survival drama.

That perspective belongs to the priest, named Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove), who, at some point in the late 19th century has been assigned to travel to the west coast of Iceland from Denmark in order to oversee the construction of a new church there. Lucas' own ambitions are quite great, as well, considering that he never made such a journey, that he doesn't speak the native language, and that passions are more passive and observational than active.

He's a photographer, too, and Lucas' plan is to travel with a local team to the site of the church from the east coast of the then-territory. Adding to his own shortcomings as a visitor and an adventurer, the summer season means 24 hours of sunlight and a volcano has erupted, making necessary river-crossings more difficult or impossible. Lucas is not prepared for any of this or, for that matter, his rugged guide named Ragnar (Ingvar Sigurðsson).

Pálmason's primary concerns certainly aren't with these characters, who are broadly defined types, set against each other and, in the priest's case, the land in which he is ill-prepared to survive. The movie takes its time to consider the landscape, as sparse fields turn to rocky hills and a plume of ash towers in the background, and constantly realize how Lucas' naïve but stubborn nature makes him an increasingly unwelcome figure and more of a harm to the locals than the land that could so easily kill him. Even the church's patron Carl (Jacob Hauberg Lohmann) finds him curious and, when the priest starts spending more time with the wealthy Dane's elder daughter Anna (Vic Carmen Sonne), a nuisance.

The director demands patience, because the thin story is spread even thinner with a bit of repetition and plenty of admiration for the land. The movie also requires reflection, since so many of the ideas here—about the relative permanence of that land and the fleeting nature of life, as well as the priest's role as a stranger imposing himself and his will on the local people—are communicated more through the filmmaking than the narrative, while also being kept intentionally vague (The purpose of the movie's final montage is unmistakable, however).

As for whether or not that patience and reflection pays off in the end, Godland feels too much like a grand thesis about too many ideas, presented from an aloof or uncaring point of view. The approach, while admirable in some ways, simply doesn't make much of an impact.

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