There's not even one single frame wasted in the directorial debut of Hlynur Pálmason. Even if it is surprising to find in a first feature film such a visual awareness marked out with powerful stylish intuition, it's less unusual to think that Vinterbrødre is one part of a path which crosses photography, painting, land art and installations; moreover, it is constantly feeding upon the strength of natural elements. The whiteness in the movie is not only represented by the snow which covers a natural and devastated landscape and that total blackness is not only portrayed by the deafening darkness of a mountain. Indeed, Pálmason also uses minerals and chemicals almost as if they were characters in one of his pieces of art, he scatters shapes and traces, and places iconic objects and gestures. More extreme colours are added to the prominent white and black and some scenes would deserve an expressive out of focus that is no longer permitted by digital. This is how the world looks like for Emil, who behind the enigmatic and incredible look of Elliott Crosset Hove, knows only sudden extreme and opposite impulses. His world is in a new cold war, enemies are everywhere and it's not by chance that their boss is Lars Mikkelsen, the ineffable Russian President Viktor Petrov of House of Cards. There is no peace, we have to get the gun and prepare to fight.
h.pálmason