Jar City (aka Myrin) [DVD]

and the Swedish Wallander TV series, you will probably like this film. This the first of Indridason's crime novels based on his detective Erlender and I had read all the books in the series so far before seeing this. I thought it was a very good adaption and hope that they will do more. It is more thoughtful than hard-hitting and while the plot is complex enough, it is not a high octane thriller. I actually like the fact that the characters look like real people and as I am interested in Iceland, found it gave some interesting views of Icelandic society today. If you like the serious Nordic approach to crime, you should enjoy this.

Jar city is a complex, dark yet engaging film. It is beautifully shot, showing the barren and sometimes desolate landscape of Iceland. Just what links a rare genetic disease, the death of a young girl, a murder, a rape which occurred 20 years ago and a missing person? Well you'll just have to watch it to find out. Despite the subject matter, the film does have the odd moment of humour which does wonders to shift the mood. The main actor gives a tremendous performance in what is a highly enjoyable film and yet another reason why Scandinavian film is perhaps the best in Europe. This won't be to everyone's taste however I liked it a lot.

A sheep's head,Einstein's brain,and dug-up skeletons,tainted blood.A lovely feast and spectacle for the Icelandic tourist board to contend with let alone this detective procedural.There's a certain shock value to all theseitems, an esoteric,forensic quality,as well as a maguffin or two.Jar City by Arnaldar Indridson has been filmed by Kormakur to bring out the terrors and dangers of the wilderness of Iceland in sepulchral blue tones.There are spectacular,sweeping shots of the landscape as Erlendur,the dour detective drives across it,searching for connections to the murder of a lonely,old rapist,together with an effective choral soundtrack.A major theme is the unlocking of a government DNA database and organ centre,Jar City,by the genetic researcher,Orn,who is bereaving his young daughter's death,and has gained unlawful access,leading to tragedy.Isolated in the Atlantic, wind-swept, wet with winter gloom,seams of humour run through the darkness like the returning sun to pagans. Erlendur is the depressed father of a junkie daughter who is pregnant and needs his help.The Icelanders'diminished populationseeks survival through the DNA database and the fact that the raped women have not aborted their children.The murdered Holberg has,through rape, given birth to children with his own genetic brain disease.

There is hatred and fear of the surveillance society.The idea of the keeping of these old family secrets-tragedies,sorrows and death-classified in computers,waiting to be called up.Dark secrets,black landscapes,grim weather and long winter nights.There are sleazy retired cops and brooding psychopathic criminals waiting to escape prison and murder.The awkward,unglamorous,beardy Erlendur(Sigurdsson) keeps the tone basic and real,with his tender regard for his daughter amid the chaos,in a film whose well-trodden themes of how the past infects the present through genetic and emotional inheritances,lays seige through a repulsion that haunts him like an evil spirit.This nordic noir, full of unsettling atmospherics, feels genuinely fresh.