Director and screenwriter Hlynur Pálmason’s latest film Godland will be shown at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Un Certain Regard competition, ScreenDaily reports. This will not be Hlynur’s first time at the prestigious film festival; in 2019 his film A White, White Day screened during Critics’ Week and earned actor Ingvar Sigurðsson the rising star award.
Set in the 19th century, Godland tells the story of a young Danish priest (Elliott Crosset Hove) who “travels to a remote part of Iceland to build a church and photograph its people. But the deeper he goes into the unforgiving landscape, the more he strays from his purpose, his mission and morality.” It is a co-production between Denmark’s Snowglobe film production company and Iceland’s Join Motion Picture.
See Also: Icelandic Film “Lamb” Double-Nominated in Cannes
Cannes’ Un Certain Regard competition, which was “refocused” last year on “the discovery of emerging filmmakers,” has been part of Cannes since 1978. In addition to the main prize, which includes a €30,000 purse, this competition also awards the Ensemble Prize, Prize of Courage, Prize of Originality, and a Special Mention. Last year, the Icelandic film Lamb, directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson, written by Sjón, and starring Noomi Rapace, won the competition’s Prize of Originality. In this year’s competition, Godland will screen alongside 14 other films, many of them their directors’ first feature.
Hlynur Pálmason was born and raised in Iceland and then moved to Denmark to study filmmaking at the Danish National Film School. His debut film, Winter Brothers (2017), won four awards in the main competition of the Locarno Film Festival and went on to win 30 awards. Godland is his third feature film.
