Börn náttúrunnar

"Children of Nature" is the first Icelandic film I have ever seen and I was pleasantly surprised. It concerns two former childhood sweethearts (Thorgeir & Stella) who meet in an old age home, escape, and return to their remote hometown.

This film is a nice antidote to most Hollywood movies: the stars are nasty old people, the pace of the film is slow, and there are elements of magical realism. It also doesn't hurt that the cinematography is excellent and shows off Iceland beautifully.

After seeing this film, I get the impression that Iceland is a weird and wonderful place and I hope to visit soon!

P.S. If you liked "Wings of Desire" you'll appreciate the cameo by the angel Damiel (Bruno Ganz).

Since making Children of Nature he not made anything worthwhile, so he has passed his peak. He's made about 4-5 very bad films since nearly winning an oscar for this average but entertaining film. And he never really made anything good before this. It's a shame that he runs the Icelandic film industry single handedly.

I have known about this movie long time, but only recently had chance to see it. Unfortunately, I have to say that I expected something more. I cannot comment on photography as I have seen very poor copy. But as far as the storytelling goes, this film is too shallow, too naive, too lacking depth for my tastes. Number of scenes stick out like sore thumb. Take the scene where police chases the jeep with the couple: it just vanishes - without any relation to anything, without any explanation. Or the scene with that country festival - what was it? Why was it? Or the naked woman on a cliff ("ghost" as she is mentioned). If the scene wasn't there, nothing would change. And there's more of this stuff.

The overall feeling is that of clumsiness. This looks more like student film than an opus from an accomplished director. I felt somewhat embarrassed for taking my girlfriend with me to see this movie.

BTW, I have seen "Cold Fever" by Fridrik Thor and I think it is better movie than the "Children of Nature".

I´m sorry to say, but this film is one of the worst from Iceland. It has some of the most dumbest plot lines ever filmed, and everyone who has ever heard anything of Iceland knows that old people are not mistreated the way it´s portrayed in this flick. An Oscar nomination...give me a break. It would have been more believable to let Die Hard take place here than this film.

An elderly couple reunite in a nursing home and decide to hit the road back to their original homeland. Sweet and mesmerising with stunning locations.