Virgin Mountain

Fúsi is forty-three, handles baggage at the airport, still lives with his mother and builds model reconstructions of Second World War battles on a table in his spare time. His mother's boyfriend gives him a dance course as a present and there he meets Sjöfn. Around the same time a small girl in his building becomes his friend and the neighbours are unhappy about it. Dagur Kári works without pity and without mockery, making Fúsi neither victim nor hero and simply showing how slow it is to change a life. Gunnar Jónsson plays the part with almost no change of expression. The Icelandic landscape here produces not beauty but a sense of emptiness. The ending is small and earned. Who it is for: viewers who like Nordic drama and quiet films about solitude. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a fast transformation.