Noi the Albino

Seventeen-year-old Noi lives in a remote Icelandic town, skips school, works in the graveyard and dreams of getting out. He befriends Iris, who works at the petrol station. His escape plan never quite resembles a plan, and the film watches this patiently. Dagur Kari's first feature. Tomas Lemarquis plays Noi, a performance that brought him a Best Actor nomination at the European Film Awards. The music is the director's work too: Kari is a member of Slowblow, the band that scored the film. Sound and image coming from the same hand explains the tone; everything settles into one cold, slow rhythm. The palette is nearly monochrome: blue snow, grey sky, brown interiors. The town is wedged between mountain and sea and the camera keeps reminding you of it. The closing scene turns the whole film into something else, and that is the part most viewers keep. Who it is for: lovers of northern European deadpan and adolescent isolation. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for events; the film proceeds with almost nothing happening.