Magnús (Sverrir Gudnason) is a fisherman living in the southeast of Iceland, where he spends long stretches out at sea, unable to see his kids. Anna (Saga Garðarsdóttir) is a visual artist who makes large, unconventional canvases. Once a family under the same roof, the couple are now separated, leaving Anna to raise their three children (and sheepdog, Panda). She does so with a gentle hand, alternately indulging and rebuffing Magnús’s attempts to reconnect, and as the seasons pass, their emotions ebb and flow.
Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason’s accomplished fourth feature is no Scenes from a Marriage; forgoing dramatic recriminations, he tells the story of a relationship through oblique montage sequences, humorous episodes, quasi-essayistic passages, and even a few surrealistic flourishes. Filled with magisterial natural vistas and featuring some of the most invigorating editing rhythms of any film this year, this is the rare work that remains unpredictable throughout. Following Godland (VIFF 2022) and A White, White Day (VIFF 2019), Pálmason again takes a familiar premise into unexpected and original territory.
Oscar Submission: Iceland
Community Partner
Saga Garðarsdóttir, Sverrir Guðnason, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Grímur Hlynsson, Þorgils Hlynsson
Iceland/Denmark/
Sweden/France
2025
In Icelandic, English, Swedish and French with English subtitles
At International Village
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Producer
Anton Máni Svansson, Katrin Pors
Screenwriter
Hlynur Pálmason
Cinematography
Hlynur Pálmason
Editor
Julius Krebs Damsbo
Production Design
Frosti Friðriksson
Original Music
Harry Hunt
Hlynur Pálmason
Hlynur Pálmason, born 1984 in Höfn, Iceland, is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and visual artist working between Iceland and Denmark. He began his career in visual arts before transitioning to filmmaking, graduating from the National Film School of Denmark in 2013. He made his feature debut with the well-received Winter Brothers (2017) and followed it up with A White, White Day, which premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week 2019. His third feature film, Godland (2022), was selected for Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Festival, and his newest feature, The Love that Remains, premiered in the Cannes Premiere section at Cannes 2025.
Filmography: Winter Brothers (2017); A White, White Day (2019); Godland (2022)
Photo by Hildur Ýr Ómarsdóttir
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The President's Cake
Nine year old Lamia and her friend Saeed venture into the city to scrounge ingredients for a cake to celebrate Sadaam Hussein's birthday — a quest fraught with real peril in precarious times. Winner, Camera d'Or, Cannes.
Sinners
2025's unexpected box office sleeper is that rare beast, a genre movie full of bold invention and surprise. We are in Mississippi in the early 1930s, and the opening of a new blues joint on the edge of town is the signal for all hell to break out.
Montreal, ma belle
In this Valentine to discovering love later in life, the ever-elegant Joan Chen plays Feng Xia, a 53-year-old Chinese immigrant and mother in Montreal whose world is turned upside down when she meets and falls in love with a young Quebecoise.
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
Antonia's Line
This month's Pantheon selection spotlights the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the Dutch feminist filmmaker Marleen Gorris, and her charming, vibrant tale of an emancipated farmer who refuses to conform.
Oscars® Party 2026
Experience the Academy Awards in style at the VIFF Centre! Watch the ceremony live on the big screen with a red carpet, a fully licensed bar and live hosts.