Go backBack to selection

Trailer Watch: Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland

Watch the trailer for Godland, the third feature from Icelandic filmmaker Hlynur Pálmason. The film takes place during the late 19th century and follows a young Danish priest as he embarks on a grueling journey through the harsh yet stunning landscape of Iceland to establish a church and photograph the inhabitants of the then-remote Danish territory.

In his dispatch out of Cannes last year, Blake Williams expands on the film’s sumptuous visuals and the film’s (albeit fictitious) historical reference:

“The film is shot on 35mm and lets you know it by adopting what appears to have been an extremely hands-off clean-up after the digital scan was made, leaving copious specks and dust to decorate the image, itself encased by the rough and rounded edges of the film gate. Not near pastiche, the look suits the movie’s subject matter fairly well, inspired as it was by seven wet plate photographs taken by a Danish priest, which an early onscreen text informs us are the first to document Iceland’s southeastern coast. Thus, Pálmason’s narrative imagines the journey that produced these images, and follows the priest, Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove), who in the opening scene is sent to Iceland by the Church of Denmark to establish a parish there.”

Godland will hit theaters via Janus Films in New York on February 3 and Los Angeles on February 10.

© 2024 Filmmaker Magazine. All Rights Reserved. A Publication of The Gotham