听 User Rating 
Contains strong language
On paper N贸i Albin贸i might sound like yet another tale of adolescent alienation. Enduring an unsatisfactory relationship with his heavy-drinking father (Throstur Leo Gunnarsson), and in constant trouble at school, 17-year-old N贸i (T贸mas Lemarquis) feels bored and constrained by small town life. The arrival of a beautiful new girl, Iris (Elin Hansd贸ttir), revitalises N贸i, and he plans for the pair of them to escape far away.
"FAR FROM FAMILIAR"
The film's setting, however, is far from familiar - namely a remote community in winter in the West fjords of Iceland, where the inhabitants are hemmed in by sea and mountains. (The opening shot sees N贸i having to clear the head-high snow drift from the front door, immediately establishing his sense of imprisonment.)
And N贸i himself is an idiosyncratic protagonist. Bald, ultra-pale, and bobble-hatted, he might be some sort of genius, which is the verdict of the visiting school psychiatrist. Or perhaps he's a rebel without a cause who's happier with his own company in an underground cellar or taking pot shots at stalactites in the great outdoors.
The debut feature of Icelandic director Dagur K谩ri, N贸i Albin贸i has the deadpan, melancholic tone that brings to mind the poker-faced entertainment of Finland's Aki Kaurism盲ki ."OFF-KILTER"
Everybody here is slightly off-kilter, providing some droll humour: there's N贸i's taciturn, shotgun-wielding granny (Anna Fridriksd贸ttir), glumly performing her aerobic exercises; the priest on the motorised sled giving instructions on the precise depth of a grave via a walkie talkie; and the lugubrious Kierkegaard-quoting bookseller, who muses: "Hang yourself and you'll regret it. Don't hang yourself and you'll regret it."
Contrasting the forbidding whiteness of the natural environment with sickly-green interiors, Kari incorporates a mellow score from his own band Slowblow. And despite having left clues along the way, this talented filmmaker still manufactures a powerful surprise with an apocalyptic resolution, which nevertheless manages to offer a glimpse of a better future.
In Icelandic with English subtitles.
