godland lukas

Godland review | A conflict between man and nature

★★★☆☆ In Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland, a 19th century priest loses sense of his mission and reality. Read our review. 

by Maria Lattila |

★★★☆☆

In Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland, a 19th century priest loses sense of his mission and reality as he traverses the Icelandic landscape. Read our review. 
A crisis of faith has been a popular subject for filmmakers. Martin Scorsese examined it to a great detail in Silence and The Exorcist made it into a source of horror. You could mistake Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland as another film exploring a man of God experiencing a similar crisis on his travels, but as it’s revealed, this is more a crisis of nature and humanity than of blind faith.  Elliott Crosset Hove plays Lucas, a Danish priest tasked with building a church in a remote Icelandic village at the tail end of the 19th century, when Iceland was still under the rule of Denmark. Lukas is faced with the unforgiving nature as well as crushing loneliness and a language barrier, which makes him question his mission as well as his sanity.  Godland begins with a title card that explains that the narrative has been built around a series of photographs that were found in a box on a beach in Iceland. The director admitted this is false, but it’s still a fascinating narrative device. Godland’s tight aspect ratio, with its curved edges, makes the entire film seem like an old still photograph, frozen in time. 
godland

Credit: Godland

There are two opposing forces at play in Godland; modernity and the past, represented by Luxas, who carries a camera with him and photographs both people and nature, and his guide, Ragnar (Ingvar Sigurðsson) who refuses to speak to Lucas in Danish. The two clash frequently; Ragnar is a man of the land, in harmony with nature while Lucas is modern and out of touch with Mother Nature.  With a runtime of 2.5 hours, Godland is a challenge and often a chore to get through. Maria von Hausswolff’s handsome, masterful camerawork isn’t enough to bring the otherwise lacking narrative to life. Despite being visually striking, like a photograph, not much is said with the film’s visuals. Lucas is often placed alone in the frame, surrounded by majestic surroundings, but the film never goes further with its metaphors or meaning.  Godland can be tender and hypnotic, but Pálmason’s film is more prone to a false sense of profoundness. It proves to be an exhausting task to try and find meaning in Godland. The camera often lingers on people or the landscape too long, making the film an overly indulgent one.  There is beauty in Godland, too. The question of maintaining faith in the most brutal of circumstances is what keeps Godland going. Pálmason directs the film with a light touch, often opting for a graceful, observational style. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but Godland is without a doubt an arresting film to look at. 
godland ragnar

Credit: Curzon

The plot of Godland, which feels less significant than the focus on themes and visuals, often feels contrived. This is a film of two parts; one that tackles Lucas’ journey and one that sees him reach his destination and struggle with the aftermath of his gruelling journey.  Hove is completely devoted to his part; his physical and emotional transformation feels acute and believable, dangerously so. While the film’s first half asks for empathy towards him – Lucas is alienated from his travel companions by the language barrier and his nationality, making the journey even more difficult and lonely for him – the second half shows what such conditions do to a man. Lukas goes from a protagonist to a troubled villain and his conflict with Ragnar comes to a shocking end.  Arguably, Godland isn’t for everyone. Pálmason asks a lot from his audience, mostly patience and good faith but Godland doesn’t quite come together as seamlessly as hoped. There is much to be said about the relationship between man, nature and religion but Godland doesn’t quite find what it wants to say. 
Godland is in cinemas 7 April. 

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