When the light breaks movie review

Some films make many words and yet say very little. The Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson (“Sparrows”), on the other hand, manages in his fourth feature film “When the light breaks“, In less than 80 minutes and mostly in the talking pictures to indicate a whole phalanx of feelings. He follows ancient drama theories in an exemplary manner: The plot plays in one day, framed by two sunrises, between whom a young woman can lose her first great love, but cannot mourn open-and the next morning with another person experiences a conciliatory melodrama. Vignette, who in a short time, has an enormous range of emotions, not least thanks to the extraordinary pictures of camera, Sophia Olsson.

The sun opens in a glistening fireball above the sea. The art students Una (Elín Hall) and Diddi (Baldur Einarsson) sit on the bank. For a long time they were only friends who studied together and played in a band, only recently they have been a couple. But apart from Diddi's brother and roommate Gunni (Mikael Kaaber), nobody knows because Diddi want to fly home exactly that day to separate from his previous friend Klara (Katla Njálsdóttir). But on the way, a catastrophic misfortune occurs in a tunnel, many people die, including Diddi. While the country mourned, Una has to hold back her feelings, especially since Klara appears and comforted by friends. During the day and night, a special closeness develops between the two women …

There are barely 75 minutes between the sunrises, with which “when the light breaks” begins and ends. There are only 24 hours in between, a day on which the main character Una experiences an alternating pool of feelings, which is almost exclusively on the striking face of the actress Elín Hall. Even when you are waiting for messages with other friends of Diddi in the Reykjavik hospital, where the many victims of the accident were admitted, she has to suppress her emotions. How much should she look forward to a message that briefly indicates that Diddi may not be among the victims after all? Which expression of the emotion is acceptable, which one would be too much and would reveal that he was more than just a friend?

Again and again Rúnarsson and his camera woman Sophia Olsson Una film through discs, areolate them in the room, even if it is actually not alone. In a small company like Iceland, with its barely 400,000 inhabitants, almost everyone knows everyone, because a relationship hiding is not an easy matter. The situation is finally pointed up by the arrival of Klara, Diddi's long -time friend, who knows nothing, at least not at first. She is a completely different type than una, much more open, more accessible – and she is comforted by the common friends in a way that would also like to have, but it is not possible.

Even if Rúnarsson lies the basis for an emotional melodrama with this constellation, which initially seems to be rapen to a large scandal between Diddi's long -standing and his new girlfriend, “when the light breaks” is developing in much more subtle, more subtle ways: Rúnarsson works with small information, for example, if Diddi and Una then share his toothbrush and then much later than. Klara stand in the same bath, and hesitates how to brush her teeth and then rather use a finger instead.

And then there are the shoes, your own Doc Martens and Diddi's running shoes that change Una and may be revealed later. But whether Klara has more than an idea of ​​the true relationship between UNA and Diddi in the end, that's no longer possible. During the day there is a very special closeness between the two women, which is not characterized by suspicions or jealousy, but by a common feeling of grief.

Conclusion: With less than 80 minutes long and its only 24 -hour history, Rúnar Rúnarsson's “When the light breaks” almost looks like a vignette. But in the short time of time, the Icelandic director succeeds with expressive pictures and a subtle playing leading actress, a wonderful, small film about dealing with grief and the loss of the first great love.