Devil's Island (1996)
Devil's Island is a bitter sweet tale of Iceland in the fifties. Life is rough in Reykjavik's post-war slum of Camp Thule, where the abandoned US military barracks have been turned into makeshift homes. Struggling wives and their hard-working husbands try to make ends meet. The younger generation dreams of dollars, Rock'n'Roll and the American way of life. To celebrate or to drown their misery - they're never short of a good reason to booze. Devil's Island vividly depicts the everyday life of a wacky family, their neighbours and friends and shows how some of their dreams come true and others don't.
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Wonderful character development!
Sorry, this movie sucks
it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
I have to say that I was never a big fan of Icelandic movies.. I always thought the acting was kinda fake and I was never really that much into them. But one day I got the movie Djöflaeyjan and I was kinda reluctant to watch it but since I didn't have anything better to do I put it in and in a few moments I was caught in it... The part where Danni dies and you see the grandfathers eyes is the saddest and the best scene for me that involves death in a movie. You don't always have to see people falling down with grief and screaming.. his empty sad stare where you see his eyes full of tears is the best acting I have seen in a long time. I watched it again yesterday and it still is as good as the day I saw it first. I hope you give it a chance it really is worth it.
See this film. It is well-filmed, spoken in a funny language, and simply catches you from the beginning to the end. See how the American Dream is dreamt in a desolate place under different circumstances. All filming perspectives here are pieces of art.
Alright so I may be biased since I played "Dick" in the movie (2 lines, Woo Hoo!!) but I definitely liked it. Although the characters sometimes seemed like caricatures you have to remember that they were trying to distill an entire nation's attitudes down into a few people. The movie is not exactly uplifting but it is well done. The acting is quality and Fridrik Thor's directing is on par with his Oscar nominated "Children of Nature."
This film features a lot of drinking, a lot of shouting and a lot of fighting! But this isn't enough to make it a good film. I never cared about the people in the story.