Under the Tree

Two neighbouring houses in Reykjavik. A large tree in one garden casts shade over the other's terrace. That is the matter: the woman cannot sunbathe. The owners of the tree refuse to cut it. At the same time the son of the house has separated from his wife and moved back in with his parents; he is fighting to see his daughter, and the family has another wound, a son who disappeared. The business of the tree grows: notes, complaints, a cat, tyres, and then more. Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson directs. The structure runs on two strands and both say the same thing: nobody will step back. The tone is black comedy. It begins as a laughable garden quarrel and escalates step by step; the film makes every step look reasonable and where it arrives is not reasonable at all. This recent strand of Icelandic cinema is built on neighbours, the provinces and suppressed anger, and this is one of its known examples. The narrative defends nobody; both sides are in the wrong and both think they are right. Its limit is tone; the harshness of the last section does not sit with the comedy of the first half, and that transition is deliberately uncomfortable. Who it is for: viewers who like Scandinavian black comedy and narratives about neighbours. Who it is not for: the ending is hard, a scene involving an animal is distressing, and none of the characters are likeable.