Reviews

The plot of this Icelandic set Spanish drama comedy (yes its got comedy on it) is simple. Norberto has left Bruno and gone to Iceland, for some alternative climate conditions - one can only guess. Anyway Bruno does the Bunny boiler thing and sets out to track him down (should have used Grinder).

Once there he gets help from fellow Spaniard Arnau and after some questionable choices in knitwear purchases off they go. They end up in the Arctic Circle on an island called Grimsey - I thought this might be a reference to a lesser known Grime star - sadly not.

Now that is it - nowt really happens except we get the back story via various telephone messages where we see a relationship going through the slow death throes that we are all familiar with. Now this type of plot can be done really well or it can be done as it is here. I was non plussed at best and bored, disinterested and slightly annoyed at worst. Nothing to recommend this at all - not even any bedroom action, shower action, beech action or in fact action. Do yourself a favour and avoid this like - well a really cold holiday in a tasteless jumper - oh and the music is awful too but it only lasts 70 minutes - a boredom filled 70 minutes that is. In Spanish and some Icelandic with sub titles to explain the futility of it all.

Set somewhere in Syria in the ongoing Civil War we meet Oum Yazan (Hiam Abass -- 'Bladerunner 2049') who is holding out in her flat as the war rages. The block has been hit several times and she has barricaded herself in with her family and neighbours who she has taken in.



The every day tasks of life - like dusting and cooking - take on a new emphasis as she struggles to adapt to incessant change whilst trying to cling to some sense of normalcy. As the bombs get closer so does the horrors of war and cleaning the dust alone will no longer cut it.



Now this is an excellent film for various reasons. The tension is visceral and the acting is all flawless. However, it is the gripping nature of the story that pulls you in and the immediacy of what is happening - whilst the World does next to nothing to help the innocent victims.



It has a relatively short running time of 83 minutes and some will not be pleased at the ending - but how do you have an ending when the end is still (as I write) not yet in sight? Made in a Belgian, French and Lebanese co production and presented in Arabic with good sub titles. If you like your cinema to be challenging thought provoking and stray from the beaten path then this may very well suit you - recommended.

The 'plot' of the film is that a young boy asks his grandpops, played by Harvey Ketiel, who his hero is. Mr Keitel then goes into the past and his experiences in Hungary during World War II. This is some guy called Sonson. So we are transported back to the era and so the story begins. Sonson loses his wife and then must find his sister in law who has been transported to Poland by the brutish gendarmerie of the Hungarian police.

I can't say any more in case I give too much of the plot away so PLOT SPOILERS next****

The acting is woeful in places but I can forgive that but it is the historical errors that I found insulting so I shall list some in no particular order.

• The resistance travel about occupied Poland with no ID cards and the Germans never even ask for Sonson's at a checkpoint to the Warsaw Ghetto for his – oh and he's carrying a stolen Ss uniform too. • A virtual platoon of SS uniforms left in the open for Sonsosn and co to use and of course they all fit the resisters. • I spotted AK 47's – there is a clue as to when they were invented in the name (ie the 47 bit) and this is supposed to be 1943 to 1944. • The Germans speak in English until they get upset and then it's all 'Mein Gott in Himmel' etc. • The Ghetto is in the middle of nowhere not the centre of Warsaw. • The final battle is in a farmyard. • The BBC World service seems to be fixated on the movement of Jewish convoys – really!! • Sonson blows a bag of grenades up on a tank track and is not injured some 5 foot from the blast. • The Russias actually turn up to save the uprising like the bleedin 7th Cavalry– that got me angry when that happened. • Then the Red Army decorate the Poles and Jews. Now the mistakes here would be laughable if it were not so insulting to those people who fought and suffered and were let down by the Russians and the rest of Poland who did not join them – oh they do here in case you were wondering. Any of the good points to this dross like cinematography or SFX are missed in a miasma of made up guff and mawkish sentimentality that had me gagging. The makers should be ashamed of themselves and there have been complaints too about the portrayal of the Hungarian Gendarmerie so quite a few own goals. I have seen better accuracy and honest representation of facts in a Donald Trump interview – avoid like a self immolation contest.