Héraðið

I went into The County expecting it to be more of a comedy than it actually was. To be fair I expected bleak, dry and dark comedy because Iceland is like that. There is also some kind of similarity between New Zealand isolation stories and the Icelandic ones. It does feel like rural Iceland and rural NZ are quite similar and so I expected the tone to a bit dark.

Well that part was correct only a bit bleaker than I had expected. The earthy anti-glamor realism of thick jerseys and overalls plus dollops of cow muck and milk are a bit hard to watch without an involuntary wince or two.

I knew the lead character was a widow before I went to see the film and so was surprised to find the husband alive for the first part of the film. I think the editors could have missed that section and I was somewhat distracted to see the supposed corpse breathing in the body ID scene. The impression is that they are people of few words. When the lead character makes a pointed post on Facebook the group dynamic changes and the conflict from that drives the movie forward. It does feel a bit compressed though from a narrative perspective.

I know it is is a script but the villains of the film are cartoonish and very very stilted. By the end of the film there are some rays of hope although there are some realistic outcomes as well. Not as great at say "Woman at War" or "A White,White Day" but it has its charms.

... same the world over unfortunately but this time in Iceland, as Inga, an indomitable widow, takes on the exploitative local cooperative that led to her husbands death and the bankruptcy she faces. Go Girl Power!!!

Most of the movie is a widowed woman tending to her farm in Iceland; seems the farmers belong to a local CO-OP that, not clearly explained, seems to control farmer & community economy (prices, raw materials, selling of farm products like milk) to some little dissatisfaction (also not clearly explained). Ending lacked believability. Didn't really get a sense of farm life. Most CO-OPs are well run, but true that some put pursuing money foremost.

It really annoys me when a film is described as a comedy and then you watch it and its quite clearly not. You can't even call this a black comedy because there is nothing remotely funny about the film but that doesn't mean it's a bad.

It's the story of Inga , who runs a deeply indebted dairy farm in a remote valley in Iceland. After a tragic loss, she decides to rise up against the corrupt establishment exploiting her and the local community. This way the widowed farmer begins a new life on her own terms by fighting against corruption and injustice in her community.

If this was made in another country like The UK or The US , it would have had humour inserted and would probably had a shmaltzy ending. Obviously that's not what's done in Iceland .

This is more of a social statement about how small farms are bullied by big corporations and how one woman stood up to that . I enjoyed watching the fight against the Co op and the way the farmers rallied around but without giving anything away , the fight ends up being fruitless which gives us a strange , flat ending.

Overall i was sold a different film from what i got but it was still very watchable .

I have seen some reviewers expecting this to be a comedy and I was quite surprised. Maybe this is due to a trailer or marketing.

I saw this on at a local film festival and had no prior knowledge of it, so I wasn't expecting any particular genre. Simply put, without that comedic expectation, this movie is excellent, well acted and filmed, with some fantastic sound design and music (and suspense-filled silence too)

The story, revolving around Inga's battle against corruption by a certain company in her country, is well paced, with some very well placed humour and suspense. All the other characters are great too. Most importantly, all of them are believable. None feel fake or over-acted or badly written.

Importantly to me, though, the main character, Inga... isn't a woman for the sake of it. This isn't a feminist focused movie trying to make Inga out to be 'powerful' or 'brave' or anything like that. She's portrayed as a normal human being who falls on hard times and is sick of it. This just makes her all the more lovable!

Overall an excellent movie. Go watch it.