Skuli Fr. Malmquist Movies

A man in his late sixties changes his life, but is it too late for those closest to him? Hannes (Theodor Juliusson) has spent thirty years working as a school custodian, and has a well-earned reputation at work and at home as a stubborn, difficult man who doesn't have much use for any emotion besides anger. When Hannes takes retirement, he soon discovers just how empty his life is, and his wife Anna (Margret Helga Johannsdottir), son Ari (Thorstein Bachmann) and daughter Telma (Elma Lisa Gunnarsdottir) grow tired of his crusty, vindictive attitude. After Hannes has an accident while fishing, he and Anna have an argument that leads to him opening up to her emotionally in a way he hasn't done in years, and it blossoms into a new intimacy between them. However, Ari and Telma seem suspicious when their father turns over a new leaf, and just as Hannes begins enjoying his relationship with Anna, she suffers a stroke which makes her newly dependent on him. Eldfjall (aka Volcano) was the first feature film from director Runar Runarsson; Kjartan Sveinsson of the popular Icelandic indie rock band Sigur Ros composed the film's original score. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

As preparation gets under way for the construction of an environmentally devastating oil well in a remote Alaskan base just outside the Arctic Circle, a series of unexplainable occurrences leads a team of adventurers to believe that something supernatural may be afoot in director Larry Fessenden's chilly snowbound thriller. Pollack (Ron Perlman) is the ultra-macho leader of a team of adventurers that includes his former lover Abby (Connie Britton), pot-smoking mechanic Motor (Kevin Corrigan), and inexperienced newcomer-cum-fortunate son Maxwell (Zach Gilford). When research scientists Hoffman (James LeGros) and Elliot (Jamie Harrold) arrive to assess the environmental impact of the proposed project, Pollack's unmasked contempt for the pair's stalling of the project immediately creates dissent among the group. As emotions boil to the breaking point and cabin fever begins to take hold, Maxwell's increasingly strange behavior is initially attributed to the blinding white barrenness of the region, which has been known to quickly wear thin the fortitude of even experienced men. There's more to Maxwell's midnight wanderings and incoherent mumblings than meets the eye, though, because as the outside temperature begins to rise during the dead of winter and the team members begin to experience fleeting visions out of the corner of their eyes, it starts to seem as if mother nature may be voicing her opposition to the proposed pillaging of her luminous white landscape. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

With the bleak comedic drama Dark Horse, Icelandic director Dagur Kári reworks several thematic and topical elements from his prior film, Nói Albinói. He also crafts a feature which brings together two trends of Scandinavian cinema in the early 2000s: matter-of- fact examinations of ordinary, working class Scandinavian folks, with intersecting lives and stories, shot in stark black-and-white (typified by films such as Ragnar Bragasson's Born), and the low-key, whimsical, offbeat humor of northern European directors such as Aki Kaurismaki.Dark Horse opens in Copenhagen, where Daniel, a twentysomething young man, makes a paltry living as a graffiti painter, accepting money from Danish residents to create personalized valentines on the sides of buildings. Unable to collect enough from this trade to pay his rent, he is evicted and must approach his father for lodging, but the father refuses, forcing Daniel to sleep in his car. Daniel's friend Roger (nicknamed "Grandpa") works at a local medical clinic that is conducting sleep experiments on volunteers, including a judge; in Roger's off time, he trains as a football referee. Roger confides in Daniel about his discovery of a former model Franc, who works at a local bakery; Daniel and Franc inevitably then become involved, to Roger's consternation, and Roger plots to intervene by attempting to win Franc for himself. Meanwhile, the judge, suffering from pronounced sleep deprivation, has a complete emotional and mental breakdown and flies off the handle, engaging in increasingly bizarre and dysfunctional behavior. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi