Metalera

In Iceland, Karl (Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson), his wife Droplaug (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir), his son Baldur (Óskar Logi Ágústsson) and his daughter Hera (Thora Bjorg Helga) form a simple family of farmers that works in their farm. When Baldur has an accident and dies, the family is deeply affected and the twelve year-old Hera becomes a rebel and fan of hard rock. Along the years, they grieve the loss of Baldur and the confused Hera composes songs of death rock and gets into successive troubles in their friendly community.

"Málmhaus", a.k.a. "Metalhead", is an original Icelandic drama, with the story of a troubled teenager that becomes a fan of hard rock. The screenplay is absolutely unique and never uses clichés. Hera is a messy character troubled by the loss of her beloved brother. She gets into the most unusual situations that are resolved by her parents, neighbors and members of their communities that understand the meaning of the loss of Karl to the family, especially to the young girl. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Mudando o Destino" ("Changing the Destiny")

I liked Málmhaus as a drama a lot, only the resolution, the ending was a little too much suger-candy for me. I know, I know, sometimes a positive message is not a bad one, but after the really well made story and well performing cast, I would have liked a more twisted or more "serious" ending, or maybe an idea that was not that obvious. Anyway, still good.

It may seem that this film is about music or about a musical style, but it really speaks about what is that people thinks about us and what they think we should be or they want us to be, about what we want to be and about who we really are. Talk about the most important thing in life, which is one's own identity and our happiness. Very powerful message. It is an excellent film.

There's something about northern hemisphere foreign-language movies that I love. Anything from Denmark or Sweden, and this is from Iceland, I think?

I do have my doubts about this film though. The acting isn't always great and I had a problem with the believability of the main character as a hard rocker, but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of Metalhead much.

It doesn't matter if a movie has little content as long as you enjoy what it gives. Perhaps a bleak statement of art, or just someone working through their grief through mismatched relationships and the love of music, whatever the genre might be: it could be country or gospel, it doesn't really matter. Ultimately things work out well if you stick to your principles and follow your dreams, listening to your heart, instead of taking easy comfort, which is what I got from this movie.

Málmhaus could have been better and a bit more sordid and harrowing, but the ending credits with Symphony of Destruction by Megadeth nailed it for me.

There is not much Black metal in the movie, if you were expecting this. :-) HOWEVER, the film is more than worth watching. More or less benign in nature, it deal with humanity of people that are mostly alone. Just they themselves, their work and their pain.

The movie is set about the time Mayhem started forming Black Metal scene; the main protagonist in a way "invented" her version of black metal as a way to cope with death of her brother. Interestingly, the black metal track from the movie (unfortunately just one song) actually sounds really good! It actually does sound like it was made in that time, making the movie only more believable.

While Burzum is not specifically mentioned in the movie (sadly), it was very important for the plot itself.

Slow "studio" version of the song is also really good. (It is called Svarthamar, and there are two versions- studio and demo on YouTube - artist is Petur Bien - the rest of the album is so-so, instrumental ambient music). I don't remember when was the last time I got shivers down my spine listening to something. The track is really good, especially if you understand the words / read the translation. It goes phenomenally with the movie itself.