After leaving prison, ex-con Simon (Keith Carradine) returns to his mother's homeland of Iceland with the intention of ending it all.
But instead of suicide, he finds free-spirited artist Dua, takes a stand against the creepy local police chief who's harassing her and winds up helping her smuggle a rare falcon to Hamburg, a venture hampered by their opposing ambitions for the bird (he wants to sell it to a wealthy Arab for a small fortune, she doesn't) and Dua's tendency to give away their money and transport at every opportunity.
It's a slow-burning story of relative freedoms heading towards a fairly inexorable end but this inevitability, combined with the stark, mythic beauty of the Icelandic landscape, only adds to the atmosphere of pathos and to Carradine's sad, subtle performance.
But instead of suicide, he finds free-spirited artist Dua, takes a stand against the creepy local police chief who's harassing her and winds up helping her smuggle a rare falcon to Hamburg, a venture hampered by their opposing ambitions for the bird (he wants to sell it to a wealthy Arab for a small fortune, she doesn't) and Dua's tendency to give away their money and transport at every opportunity.
It's a slow-burning story of relative freedoms heading towards a fairly inexorable end but this inevitability, combined with the stark, mythic beauty of the Icelandic landscape, only adds to the atmosphere of pathos and to Carradine's sad, subtle performance.