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| Hlynur Pálmason: Ástin sem eftir er / The Love That Remains (IS/DK/SE/FR 2025). Saga Garðarsdóttir (mother Anna), sitting. Sverrir Guðnason (father Magnús), horizontal outside the frame. |
Director: Hlynur Pálmason
Starring: Saga Garðarsdóttir, Sverrir Gudnason, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir
Country: Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, France
Languages: English, French, Icelandic
Subtitles: English
Duration: 109 min
Theme: Nordic Council Film Prize Nominees
Keywords: Family ties, Relationship with nature, Humour, Love
Love & Anarchy: Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF) 2026
In person: Sverrir Guðnason, hosted by AA.
Previewed on a screener, 25 Sep 2029
Visited at Kino Engel 1, Helsinki, 25 Sep 2029
Visited at Gilda 1, Helsinki, 26 Sep 2029
AA: After the maximalism of Volada land / Godland, Hlynur Pálmason aspires to minimalism in Ástin sem eftir er.
Even here he can't help himself providing magnificent images of Icelandic landscapes, growing towards a transcendentalist vision.
Simultaneously, Ástin sem eftir er is an intimate family story with a sensitive touch in psychological nuance and a sense of the authentic experience in family dynamics.
There is a mythological polarity in the family. Anna the mother and the artist (Saga Garðarsdóttir) is profoundly earthbound, if not quite the "Earth mother", and her art is certainly not minimalistic. She works in the large format at an industrial studio, and having been evicted from it, in the great outdoors.
Magnús the father and the seafarer (Sverrir Guðnason) spends weeks on the high seas on a herring trawler. The profession of an ocean fisherman is still one of the most dangerous in the world. To top that, Magnús also contributes as a minesweeper, finding and demining seabound explosives dating back to WWII.
Anna and Magnús have recently separated, and Magnús is increasingly becoming a stranger at his own (former) home, being made to feel that he has overstayed his welcome. He is simply away too much and does not contribute to the everyday life as much as Anna would expect.
The three children are played by the director's own children, and the dog is his own dog. At Cannes Film Festival, the dog was the only one to win a prize. All actors would have deserved one.
The art seen in the movie is also by the director Hlynur Pálmason, and he even conducted the cinematography of the film which was many years in the making. It was shot on 35 mm in Academy. The distinction of the cinematography is conveying the brilliant light of Iceland. It lends a unique luminous quality to the movie - pure, crisp, and clear. In the instant, you can see eternity. A similar but different quality is in movies shot in Lapland.
In the finale, Magnús jumps to the ocean and remains floating adrift in his waterproof outfit. In the Q&A sections after the screenings, Sverrir Guðnason told that such is the occasional habit of sailors.
We are left pondering on the associations of that prolonged final sequence. The perils of patriarchy? Earth mothers no longer indulging seafaring fathers?
A film of the year is The Odyssey (US 2026). In today's world, Penelope might not wait 20 years for Odysseus' homecoming but pick the best of the suitors - or perhaps Calypso or Nausicaa.
Ástin sem eftir er gets better and deeper the more one sees it and reflects on it. The final image may also be about us cast adrift in a world where we keep living like there is no tomorrow.
...
Otto Kylmälä (HIFF 2026): "This breakup story from Iceland tenderly explores the complex web of family, love, and shared memories."
"Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, The Love That Remains is a poetic and gentle exploration into the ordinary days of one Icelandic family that tries to navigate through the subtle changes of the parents’ divorce and co-parenting. The film dives into the fisher father’s and the artist mother’s new lives gently and realistically, until a huge rooster and a scarecrow come to haunt them as dreamy symbols."
"In the films of the award-winning Hlynur Pálmason (Godland, R&A 2022), Icelandic nature becomes one of the protagonists. The cinematic poem, set around the changing of the seasons, moves forward like a living collage: broad Icelandic landscapes become emotional counterpoints to different details and textures, rusty works of art and flowing waterfalls of herrings."
"Instead of offering clean solutions, the film is a beautifully subtle dramedy and a thoughtful investigation of what remains when love changes. It lingers on the ambiguities, inviting the audience to feel the characters’ diverse feelings that flow like the tide." Otto Kylmälä (translated by Vilja Hynynen), R&A 2026
Otto Kylmälä (HIFF 2026): "Islantilainen erotarina tutkii hellästi perheen, rakkauden ja jaettujen muistojen monimutkaisia rihmastoja."
"Cannesissa ensi-iltansa saanut The Love That Remains on runollinen ja hellävarainen tutkimusmatka islantilaiseen perheeseen, joka yrittää navigoida vanhempien eron ja yhteisvanhemmuuden hienovaraisissa muutoksissa. Elokuva uppoutuu kalastajaisän ja kuvataitelijaäidin uuteen elämänrytmiin lempeän realistisesti, kunnes jättimäinen kukko ja maalitauluna käytetty variksenpelätin saapuvat kummittelemaan unenomaisina symboleina."
"Palkitun Hlynur Pálmasonin (Kutsumus, R&A 2022) elokuvissa Islannin luonto nousee yhdeksi päähenkilöksi. Vuodenaikojen vaihtumisen ympärille rakennettu runoelma etenee kuin elävä kollaasi: laajat islantilaiset maisemat muuttuvat emotionaalisiksi vastakohdiksi erilaisille yksityiskohdille ja tekstuureille, ruosteisille taideteoksille ja putouksena virtaaville silakkaseinämille."
"Sen sijaan, että elokuva tarjoaisi siistejä ratkaisuja, se on kauniin hienovarainen draamakomedia ja pohdiskeleva tutkimus siitä, mitä jää jäljelle rakkauden muuttuessa. Se viipyy monitulkintaisuudessa kutsuen katsojat tuntemaan hahmojen mukana vuoroveden lailla virtaavat moninaiset tunteet." Otto Kylmälä, R&A 2026
