A film from Iceland no longer is a rarity. In the last decade this tiny country had developed something worth mentioning a film industry.
In many Icelandic films the beautiful nature is one of the attractions. I do not say the only attraction, but one of them. "When the light breaks" is only situated in Reykjavik, and this is not the most picturesque city on earth. Director Runar Runarsson rightly felt he could do without scenery in this interesting film.
"When the light breaks" is the first film I saw from Runarsson, but I knew his name from "Volcano / Eldfjall" (2011). Runarsson did not have much luck with "Volcano". It is about much the same theme as "Amour" (2012) from Michael Haneke, which was released around the same time and got all the publicity. I read somewhere that in fact "Volcano" is the better movie, but I cannot verify this.
The Icelandic title of the movie is "Ljósbrot" , which literally translated means "light refraction". It stands for the light of the sun during a sunrise. Eventually it was decided not to use this literal translation but the more symbolic / psychological "When the light breaks" to get the English title.
The film begins with a sunset and ends with a sunrise, essentialy capturing the one day in between. Both the opening and the ending scene are accompanied by the requiem "Odi et Amo" of the Icelandic composer of film music Johann Johannsson (1969 - 2018).
The ending scene is very poetic, the reflection of the sunlight on the sea at first sight appearing as a lava flow, which is not a strange association with an Icelandic movie. There is another very poetic scene near the beginning of the movie in which it only gradually becomes clear that the stroboscopic lights are in effect lights on the ceiling of a tunnel as seen from a moving car.
The film is about two women, both of them having a relationship with the boy that dies in a traffic accident in the beginning of the movie. One is his official girlfriend (Klara played by Katla Njalsdottir) the other is his mistress who would soon had become his official girlfriend ( Una played by Elin Hall).
The problem of Una is that for the outside world she is "only" a friend and that she can not show her grieve in full in order not to hurt Klara. During the film the emotions are going from:
trying to hide the grief (Una);
suspecting something (Klara;)
accepting their common grief (both).
There is a scene in which the faces of the two women are melting into each other. Of course this is a film quotation to the famous scene from "Persona" (1966, Ingmar Bergman). This quotation is however not just a wisecrack for film buffs, it accurately illustrates the essence of the movie.
Elin Halls gives a terrific performance in this movie. She is a redhead with a face that is not so much beautiful as fascinating. It reminded me of Robin McCaffrey in "Four weddings and a funeral" (1994, Mike Newell), although McCaffrey didn't have anyting like a leading role in that movie.
