Director: Vladimir de Fontenay.

Stars: Swann Arlaud, Woody Norman, Ruaridh Mollica, Alma Pöysti, Tuppence Middleton

Based on novella ‘Sukkwan Island’ by American writer David Vann, French writerdirector de Fontenay’s film is a handsome but frustrating experience. A moody framing sequence has a clearly troubled young British man Roy (Mollica) making his way to Norway to connect with his estranged father. The story flashes back to an earlier journey when as a thirteen-year-old boy Roy (Norman) travelled to an island in the remote Norwegian fjords to spend time with his French dad Tom (Arlaud). Tom it is revealed, does not see Roy much since he broke up with Roy’s mother (Middleton). The two bicker and bond in their isolated cabin but when the winter arrives they are beset by problems, external and internal. Arlaud and Norman display a convincing father and son rapport, despite an underwritten script, with Araud managing to mine some sympathy for the petulant and dangerously irresponsible grownup. Cinematographer Amine Berrada pristine blue-hued rendering of the fjords is beautiful. Otherwise, this is an unsatisfying mix of dull inertrelationship drama and underpowered survival story. A third act narrative turn feels perversely self-defeating.

David Willoughby

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