Children of Nature (1991)

Touches You

Absolutely the worst movie.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Thorgeir has grown old and is unable to run his farm anymore. He packs his few belongings, shoots his old dog, and leaves to the city. Living with his daughter's family doesn't work out too well, and he ends up in a nursery home - society's way of putting out people when they are no longer needed. There he meets up with Stella, and together they steal a Jeep and set out on a journey to northwest where they both grew up.Children of Nature can be a difficult film to comprehend for the casual viewer, as elements of magical realism appear suddenly and without explanation in this seemingly realistic film. However, one must be aware that this is a travel to the childhood, back to rural Iceland, where supernatural was (and partly still is) a very real part of the way of life. Through the film, Thorgeir also undergoes transformation from his very cynical outset that sees death as turning into mere trash that has to be thrown out.The beauty of Children of Nature is the way the simplistic road movie builds up into being commentary on urbanization, heritage, life and - most of all - death. The ending is one of the most powerful that I have ever seen.

I have known about this movie long time, but only recently had chance to see it. Unfortunately, I have to say that I expected something more. I cannot comment on photography as I have seen very poor copy. But as far as the storytelling goes, this film is too shallow, too naive, too lacking depth for my tastes. Number of scenes stick out like sore thumb. Take the scene where police chases the jeep with the couple: it just vanishes - without any relation to anything, without any explanation. Or the scene with that country festival - what was it? Why was it? Or the naked woman on a cliff ("ghost" as she is mentioned). If the scene wasn't there, nothing would change. And there's more of this stuff.The overall feeling is that of clumsiness. This looks more like student film than an opus from an accomplished director. I felt somewhat embarrassed for taking my girlfriend with me to see this movie.BTW, I have seen "Cold Fever" by Fridrik Thor and I think it is better movie than the "Children of Nature".

An elderly couple reunite in a nursing home and decide to hit the road back to their original homeland. Sweet and mesmerising with stunning locations.

I ´ve seen some of the earlier works of Fridrik and with one exception hated them all. He started by insulting the Icelandic nation by doing a horrible (and terribly long film) about one of nation's greatest writers. Then he did a documentary about Iceland and got almost all of through the windscreen of a car, driving too fast. "Rock in Reykjavik" was a pleasant documentary and really fun to watch. But this film puts him among the world's most talented directors and for a small nation, that is a lot of responsibillity. Since he did "Börn Náttúrunnar" he hasn´t done anything to speak of but it´s hard to tell whether he has passed his peak, or the best has yet to come.