Solstorm

There's no glamorous international jet setting, no big names or well known locations. The story line is slick, tense and well paced. The setting alone adds the drama without Hollywood special effects or unbelievable court room antics thrown in. It's a gripping tight thriller that will satisfy the moviegoer that appreciates a good storyline without being told what to think. I also enjoyed the cinema photography - it would have been hard to brings this aspect of the film to life when you are dealing with a predominately white subject but it passes muster and adds a real sense of emotion and isolation. Food for thought - the setting in which the story takes place could be anywhere, any town any country - just proving how alike the world can be. A great rainy afternoon film and one that you could watch again.

While in a party promoted by her chief and friend Måns Wenngren (Jakob Eklund), the fiscal attorney Rebecka Martinsson (Izabella Scorupco) receives a call from her former sister-in-law Sanna Strandgård (Maria Sundbom) telling that her brother and preacher Viktor (André Sjöberg) was murdered, stabbed and with severed hands, and she would be arrested. Rebecka heads to her hometown Kiruna and defends Sanna, but the evidences found by the police in her house prove her guilty and she is arrested. While investigating the crime, Rebecka is haunted by her past and faces the bigoted and fanatic religious dwellers that worship the local church, and is more convinced of the innocence of Sanna.

"Solstorm" is a weird, but good thriller with great performances, highlighting the gorgeous Izabella Scorupco, and awesome locations and cinematography in Kiruna (Northern Sami: Giron), the northernmost city in Sweden, situated in Lappland province, that makes the viewer feel cold, no matter where he is. The non-linear screenplay is a little confused but never uses clichés; is very tense and uncomfortable and has an unexpected plot point in the end. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Leif Lindbolm's film is a chilly Nordic thriller, filmed (with striking cinematography) in the far north of Sweden. A religious cult has taken hold of an insular town near the Arctic Circle; a former member, now a successful lawyer, returns home after the death of a priest, initially to help her sister, but she increasingly finds herself involved in the investigation. The atmosphere is tense and claustrophobic, and although (as with most thrillers) the plot is slightly contrived, a tone of realism pervades throughout. Having just seen the Swedish television adaptation of the 'Wallander' novels, I noticed its star, Krister Hendriksson, in a small role here - but whereas those stories are set in a very normal town in southern Sweden, the isolated nature of life in the far north gives 'Solstorm' a very distinctive feeling. Ultimately, it's hard to care too much about the natives, however, who keep their emotions very much to themselves (although the dead man was an interesting exception). But it's still a superior and haunting tale.

A beautiful-looking film set in an icy Scandinavian backwater, where most of the men are evil, or weak, and most of the women are good (as in a lot of contemporary Swedish drama.) The lead character (Izabela Scorupco) is a beautiful young tax lawyer, determined to protect her best friend, who's been accused of murder. Scorupco faces the usual steely-eyed religious bigots, and has to untangle familiar murky secrets, but the plot has some good twists, which are parcelled out in a well paced and-structured way. Ms Scorupco is a bit one note, but she's competent. More interesting is the local detective..she's like someone you might meet in a small town, heavily pregnant, and quietly pragmatic. The solution to most of these murder mysteries seems to be always slightly depressing - destruction seems to be the only recourse of those who try to end their own or someone else's misery. You can't make fritatas without breaking eggs, I suppose.

Great sceneries and great acting from many well-known actors could not save this film from a horrible plot flow that failed to connect well with each other.

The movie instead was successful at leaving many questions unanswered. And all the plot holes consequently turn the whole thing entirely 180 degrees back into 'nothing makes any sense at all' material. What more needed to say? This is probably the worst that can happen of a horror/dark noir/ crime thriller - based film. Whoever the director is should restudy on making a convincing movie, because the subject matter it is based on is a unique thing but the potential was not developed properly.

Please do the world justice by destroying this movie in a storm!