COLD/ KUDLI

Iceland, 2023, 98 minutes, Colour.

Johannes Hauker Johannesson, Elin Hall, Mikael Kaaber, Olof Halla Johannesdottir.

Directed by Erlingur Thoroddsen.

During the 2010s and 2020s, Scandinavian Noir  was very popular in television series from the different Scandinavian countries.

This drama/thriller is in this vein.

The main story takes place in the 2020s, opening with what looks like the suicide of a woman from a balcony on a high-rise building. It then focuses on her husband and daughter, the daughter lonely, not making friends, relying on her drawings, her relationship with her father and her grandmother, the mother of the dead woman. The father has a job in social welfare and is commissioned to investigate mysterious happenings and deaths at an institution in the 1980s.

A lot of the action takes place in the 1980s, the severity of the institution, the harsh woman in charge, the boys sent there for various reasons. The main focus is on the young woman who does the domestic work, observing the severity, befriending some of the boys, wanting to move on and take some of the boys with her. Which leads to dramatic tensions, a pregnancy, the contrast with the difficult birth of a child for the woman in charge, and an explanation of the deaths.

However, in the 21^st-century, the investigator realises there are some links of this story to his own story, discussions with his mother-in-law – the young woman working at the institution.

But, in the Scandinavian Noir tradition, there are some unexpected twists in the plot, and no desire for a very happy ending. And audiences will need to pay attention to the final credits and the range of sketches and moods that are presented, the work of the young daughter.

1. Title? Iceland and climate? Themes of emotional coldness and consequences? (And the ironic opening of indicating that the time was summer and the need to buy curtains?)
2. The opening, the distraught woman, standing at the edge, her falling? Assumption of suicide? The final explanation? And the final accusation against her husband?
3. The 21^st-century story, Odinn, at home, late, taking Run to school, his job, social services, co-worker, the home for children in the 1980s, the files, the mysterious deaths, his investigations, the time in the archives, devotion to his daughter? Her reaction to her mother’s death, her age, not making friends? The importance of her drawings?
4. The flashbacks to the 1980s, the home, Lilja and her severe management, the meal scene at the table, her partner, his physical attack on the boy during the meal? Setting the tone? The group of boys, the personalities, the reasons for their being in care? The background story of Lilja, her pregnancy, the difficult birth, the boy helping, the coathanger, the death of the child, the burial under the tree?
5. Aldis and her story, her age, working in the house, domestic chores, her mother in the Institute, her later phone call, asking about the meaning of the Shadow song, the boys asking about her future, saving money, not certain? The eerie atmosphere? Her relationship to Lilja, suspicions about a relationship with her partner, the number of the girls who had left?
6. Einar, his place at the house, his background, meetings with Aldis, their discussions, the relationship, the effect on Aldis, her leaving? The other boys, Tobbi and his help, her wanting to rescue him? Leaving, the confrontation with Lilja, the vehicle, Shadow song on the cassette, the threats?
7. The boys in the vehicle, the arguments, the fight? Lilja closing the vehicle, the gas, their deaths? The effect on Aldis?
8. Odinn, making the connections of the story to his life, the significance of his mother-in-law, the revelation that she was Aldis, that the dead woman was her daughter, her relationship with Run? The years passing, tough? The discussions with Odinn, the explanations of the past? Her story, her relationship with her daughter, granddaughter?
9. The buildup to the climax, Odinn and his concern about Run, seeing her drawings, the realisation of what it happened? The flashbacks to the confrontation between mother and daughter, Run pushing her mother over the balcony? Run, the mental disorder, sending her mother to a better place? And her father in the car, killing him? And the media saying that he had committed suicide because he killed his wife?
10. Prospects for the future, Run and a mental condition, the intervention of her grandmother – and her possibly killing her grandmother?
11. The visuals of the sketches and their sinister aspects during the final credits?