Religion is at the core of the Icelandic drama ‘Godland‘, by director Hlynur Pálmason: a young Danish priest is on a perilous journey across the hostile interior of late-19th-century Iceland, carrying his dogma, a fullsized crucifix and a plate camera. He ends up increasingly isolated from the locals, in particular his irascible guide. Godland is a stark, meditative Icelandic-Danish film that explores faith, nature, and human fragility against the raw backdrop of 19th-century Iceland. Shot on 35mm film with square aspect ratio, it feels like a series of moving daguerreotypes — austere, slow, and hypnotic. The story follows Lucas, a young Danish priest sent to build a church and photograph the island’s people. His journey across Iceland’s unforgiving landscape becomes both physical and spiritual, gradually eroding his arrogance and faith. Through long, quiet takes and the relentless presence of nature, Pálmason contrasts human ambition with the sublime indifference of the land. Godland is not a film for those seeking fast-paced drama; it’s a visual and existential experience — beautifully composed, unsettlingly still, and deeply memorable. It belongs among the great recent examples of “Nordic spiritual cinema,” echoing both Dreyer and Tarkovsky in its haunting silence.
