Filhos da Natureza

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 would like to say that I was very happy to know that the middle name of the director is Thor. It is pretty difficult for us, Brazilians, to deal with the Icelandic characters. This is the director's second film I've seen. The first was MammaGogó and I translated both subtitles from English into Portuguese. I know we loose a lot in translating from one language to another, guess when we have to go through two translations! So, I am taking into consideration that I lost a lot from the original idea of the director. My feeling was that he had an excellent material, a road movie with two elders, who don't't have any longer the right to leave their own lives as they wish (well, one, the other was somewhat resigned to his fate). The film could be more profound as it is a problem faced overall the world, but he chose to make it naive. I don't't blame his choice, otherwise the two nice couple wouldn't walk one meter before been stopped and probably arrested. I congratulated with the director because he was audacious enough to bring up a subject that many people rather ignore. I am not an expert in Icelandic filmography and I surely will look forward to watch "Cold Fever", mentioned by one of the reviewers, and I would like to emphasize that he used elements of Icelandic folklore in order to help those fugitives who believed in such elements. It was just a matter of tradition and culture. My guessing.

This movie begins with Geirri leaving the family farm and moving in with his family. He's gotten to old to handle farming on his own, and his family has decided that they are more suited to life in the city. The attempt to merge into his daughter's hectic life doesn't work out and he finds himself in a nursing home, surrounded by fellow retirees - some of whom are loving the time and the freedom the home allows right alongside others who are not.

Geirri meets up with Stella, a childhood sweetheart who has decided that dying in a nursing home is something she does not want to do. So, they decide to leave together. By the dead of night they steal a car and head for the towns of their youth...

Geirri and Stella are running form the law (leaving the home without permission and, more importantly, car theft), but there is no 'Bonnie and Clyde' feeling to this story. They return to the towns they knew and remember the years together. There are spirits in their mind and spirits of the ocean who meet them along the way. You get an excellent sense of their strength, knowledge, and experience.

All in all, this movie is very touching - until the end.

I really appreciated the journey and the experiences Geirri and Stella have, but the plot twist that brings the viewer to a final scene which is (in my opinion) brutal, disturbing, and (to be frank) confusing end. Yes, Geirri running from the law, and yes, he is trying to maintain his freedom, but...the rocks and the feet...?

Confusing and jarring. There was a fascinating mystical feel to the way the movie plays itself out, and one could theorize that the ending was more symbolic than realistic. But, why throw that kind of symbolism onto the end of such a touching (and realistic) movie?

Even so, I highly recommend this movie. There's to much to be gained from the movie as a whole to allow the oddness of the ending to stop you from seeing it.

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.

I ´ve seen some of the earlier works of Fridrik and with one exception hated them all. He started by insulting the Icelandic nation by doing a horrible (and terribly long film) about one of nation's greatest writers. Then he did a documentary about Iceland and got almost all of through the windscreen of a car, driving too fast. "Rock in Reykjavik" was a pleasant documentary and really fun to watch. But this film puts him among the world's most talented directors and for a small nation, that is a lot of responsibillity. Since he did "Börn Náttúrunnar" he hasn´t done anything to speak of but it´s hard to tell whether he has passed his peak, or the best has yet to come.