The movie

Beautiful Beings

An Icelandic Coming-of-Age tale radiant with violence and tendernes.

Length: 123 min
Country: IJsland
Language spoken: IJslands
Language subtitles: Nederlands
Cast: Áskell Einar Pálmason, Birgir Dagur Bjarkason, Viktor Benóný Benediktsson
Director: Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
Release date: 2022

Description

Teenager Addi (Birgir Dagur Bjarkason) lives with his eccentric mother in Reykjavik, Iceland. After an incident with his classmate Balli (Áskell Einar Pálmason), who is being bullied, Addi decides to take him under his wing. Together with two other comrades, the quartet explores their budding lives as they move into adulthood. They don't shy away from aggression and violence, but they also learn about mutual loyalty and affection. But their risky behaviour escalates further, and Addi looks for ways to bring him and his friends back to a safer path before it’s too late…

‘Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson’s beautiful and cruel second feature boasts an outstanding juvenile ensemble cast… There is a freshness and an inhabited vibrancy that makes this painful coming of age story feel exactly its own. And DP Sturla Brandth Grøvlen… deserves a great deal of the credit for that, shooting the boys’ lives with an immediacy and a fluidity that is captivating, even when their behaviours are brutal. It’s a story told poetically, impressionistically, through sun-flare and cigarette smoke…’—Jessica Kiang, Variety