Danish priest Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove) is despatched to the wilderness of 19th century Iceland to bring the word of god to the inhabitants of the unforgiving island in Hlynur Pálmason’s stark, beautiful, and wholly engrossing follow up to A White White Day (2019).

Lucas, an amateur photographer, burdened with unwieldy equipment, plans to both build a church for an isolated community, and to preserve on film the cruel beauty of the landscape. Forewarned that the harsh environment and almost constant summer daylight can induce psychosis, Lucas is undimmed in his missionary zeal. He is faced with an antagonist of sorts in the figure of Ragnar (Ingvar Sigurdsson), his guide on the arduous cross-country journey – a rough-hewn, unsophisticated man of the land who clashes with the imperious man of god.

Notes by David O’Mahony