Volcano

Hannes has just retired: cantankerous, speaking to nobody. Things with his children went wrong years ago and he has done nothing to repair them. When his wife falls seriously ill the care falls to him, and for the first time in his life he has to genuinely look after somebody. It turns into a late attempt at an apology, except that he does not know how to make one. Rúnar Rúnarsson's first feature takes place in the grey, cramped interiors of Iceland. The film does not romanticise old age or the burden of care: love here is a daily physical job rather than a feeling. Theodór Júlíusson conveys a man who explains nothing, using only his hands and his silence. The telling does not make forgiveness easy, and says as well that nobody is obliged to forgive anybody.