REVIEWS | DIRECTOR'S BIO

Nominated in 1992 for an Academy Award (Best Foreign Language Film) and winner of 23
international prizes, CHILDREN OF NATURE is a lyrical, dreamy film with the feel of an adventure story - praised by the New York Times for its "a spectacular, chilly beauty..." An aging couple once childhood sweethearts, escape from their retirement home and head for the treacherous terrain of Iceland's northern coast, where they grew up. Their bold journey home is full of surprise and opportunity, offering them a chance to once more take control of their lives.

CREDITS
Director: Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
Script: Einar Mar Gudmundsson and Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
Producer: Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
Director of Photography: Ari Kristinsson
Music: Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson
Art Design: Geir Ottar Geirsson
Sound: Kjartan Kjartansson
Co-Producers: Max Film Berlin and
Metro Film Oslo

CAST
Old Man: Gisli Halldorsson
Old Woman: Sigridur Hagalin
Angel: Bruno Ganz
Old Man's Roommate: Rurik Haraldsson
Detectiv: Egill Olafsson
Police Chief: Baldvin Halldorsson
Nurse: Tinna Gunnlaugsdottir
Truckdriver: Magnus Olafsson

REVIEWS

"Children of Nature" is an intelligent film, not easily categorized. Neither Geirri nor Stella is a character in a conventional sense. They are representations, figures in a modern myth that is dramatized in settings of spectacular, chilly beauty.
Mr. Fridriksson has directed "Children of Nature" with a notable rigor, but it prompts rather more awe than passionate interest. 
--Vincent Canby, New York Times, April 2, 1997

"Children of Nature," Iceland's first time Oscar entry, is a low-key drama of elderly romance set against that island nation's chilly, volcanic landscape. It's a film of pauses, silences and bittersweet moments that eventually lead to pure fantasy, but it's unpretentious all the same, basing its appeal on a universal longing for comfort and nostalgia. (...)
A 78-year-old man (Gisli Halldorsson) is closing up his remote farm and moving in with his relatives in Reykjavik when the film opens. Their reception is chillier than the seasonal weather, and before long the old man ends up in a nursing home. There he meets an elderly woman (Sigridur Hagalin) who was a childhood sweetheart, and the two decide to run away, stealing a jeep and heading for the remote coastal region, Hornstrandir, where their home village lay.
As they traverse the daunting but beautiful landscape, they become the object of a police pursuit, but are aided in their quest by sudden, supernatural interventions and encouragements. Finally, they reach their now-abandoned village, where they alternately enjoy and suffer an epiphany of sorts, asserting the primacy of their feelings at the close of their lives.
The simple tale unfolds rapidly, and the fleeting supernatural elements are treated without fanfare, so that when an angel (Bruno Ganz, reprising his character from "Wings of Desire") makes an appearance, it seems perfectly natural and emotionally right.
A modest but affecting film.
--Henry Sheehan, Hollywood Reporter, May 18, 1992

"Children of Nature" is an ambitious drama about the problems of old age. A masterly handling of landscapes and enthralling music paints a powerful picture that might have wide appeal.
--Olafur M. Johannesson, Variety, August 12, 1991

For his second feature, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson draws from childhood memories of his grandfather's final years to fashion a meditation on old age and a last minute rediscovery of romance.
Succeeding in its simplicity, "Children of Nature" should expect a rich life on the festival circuit, with its art-house potential spurred by its Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film.
The story tells of an old farmer (Gisli Halldorsson) who, realizing that his life is almost over, moves to the city to live out his last days with his daughter and her family. As might be expected, things don't work out and he finds himself in an old folks home where, as if in a magical stroke of fate, he is reunited with the woman who was the first love of his youth (Sigridur Hagalin).
Together again with nothing to tie them down, they steal a jeep and set out for the place where to have a last look at the countryside where they first met. On the run from the police, they become sort of quixotic Bonnie and Clyde looking to find their place in the sun in  journey of love and death that doesn't spare the audience a touch of the impossible.
If the place sometimes gets too relaxed, the film is enlivened by Ari Kristinsson's stunning photography, which brings out the poetically mythical quality of the Icelandic landscapes.
And if the sentimentality becomes self-conscious at times, the relationship of the two lovers avoids the cloying because of the low key electricity that flows between the two performers, making their last days of romance all the more believable.
--Andrew Horn, Screen International, February 28 - March 5, 1992


DIRECTOR'S BIO

Fridrik Thor Fridriksson was born in Iceland in 1954. and made his debut as a Director in 1981. Following four documentaries, he made two TV films and then his first feature, WHITE WHALES (1987), which was awarded a prize at Locarno Festival and the Film Lens Award at Lubeck. His second feature CHILDREN OF NATURE (1992) became his international breakthrough film, nominated for a Foreign Language Oscar in 1992. Since then Fridrikkson's work has been a regular on the festival circuit. His features include COLD FEVER (1999), DEVILS ISLAND (1998), and ANGELS OF THE UNIVERSE, premiered in January 2000 at the Gothenburg Festival in Sweden. He also serves as Producer on many Icelandic films by fellow directors.