Hjartasteinn (2016)

	Also Known As: Herzstein, Heartstone
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson
	Actors: Baldur Einarsson, Blær Hinriksson
	Country: IS, DK
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 03.11.2016, CineStar 3, NFDL2016, Icelandic with English subtitles
Synopsis: Thor (Einarsson) and Kristján (Hinriksson) live in small, remote fishing village in Iceland. They spend their summers as pleasantly as possible there. They kill time fishing off the harbour breakwater, fooling around at the junkyard or playing the slots. They trust each other – which is worth a lot in a village where you can’t really rely on the adults, and where even the smallest embarrassing moment rarely remains a secret in the community. But the two boys also realize that they are gradually changing. When Thor is at a loss as to how to get close to a girl from the town, Kristján helps.
Review: Even if the expected homosexuality of Kristján and Thor is the continuous subject, for me it is never confirmed by any of both friends. Their strong friendship and care for each other is. This depicts therefore rather the homophobia at different levels, from the parents, from school teenagers, from friends. It is very scaring to see the father angry against his own child and hitting him for bare suspiscion, not even words or talks about the homosexuality. And the mother barely defending her son.  Via the symbolic landscapes and the very close-ups the emotions are transmitted very well and full of subtlety. Gudmundsson spoke about "mirror of our emotions" for the lanscapes and "I like films with details" when asked about the close-ups during the Q&A following the projection. In addition the young actors are very good at it. Sometimes one can also see that they are indeed playing and having fun. But well, the major part of the movie is all but funny.  Even if the children are all quite abandoned by their parents, the landscapes provide intimacy and space for all, so that they finish to feel a lot of freedom as well, constrasting with the harsh home rules.  No need to say that the landscapes are beautiful, but the photography is. Also for the close-ups on the ear, on the nose, on the eyelash.
Rating: 7 /10