Godland (2023)

The attraction for me in this Icelandic film that was short listed for Best International Film is that it is filmed in an exceptionally stark and beautiful place. An inexperienced Danish priest is sent to Iceland to establish a new church, but it turns out that he is singularly unprepared in every way to accomplish this task. Set in the late 19th century, It tracks the priest, Lucas, as he sails to Iceland, where he insults the team that will be transporting him, and they bear with him as he trudges across by horse, foot and finally stretcher. Outwardly, his mission is familiar. The church will promote the faith and provide services to the coastal flock, a commission that he undertakes with confidence, a stack of heavy books and a large, cumbersome still camera that he straps to his back. He hopes to photograph the people that he meets during his expedition, a ludicrous, paradoxical idea for a man who proves wholly incapable of seeing the world around him. Early on the physical weight of what he brings leads to a death, yet he is unable to regroup. He is a strange and quite off putting character who not only doesn’t get it but doesn’t learn. The hero of the movie is the land itself, the rough beauty of the country is central to the appeal of the story.