Niceland (Population. 1,000,002)

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Movie
German title Niceland (Population. 1,000,002)
Original title Næsland
Country of production Iceland , Germany , Denmark , United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 2004
length 86 minutes
Rod
Director Friðrik Þór Friðriksson
script Huldar Breiðfjörð
production Skuli Fr. Malmquist ;
Thor Sigurjonsson
music Mugison
camera Morten Søborg
cut Sigvaldi J. Kárason ;
Different refn
occupation

Niceland (Population. 1,000,002) is an Icelandic drama film directed by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson from 2004. The film is about the mentally retarded Jed who, because of his love for his mentally handicapped friend Chloe, searches for the meaning of life power. The film opened in German cinemas on December 6, 2006.

action

The mentally slightly retarded Jed works with other handicapped people in a small factory. There he falls in love with his colleague Chloe, who has also fallen in love with him. After a date together, Jed is so overjoyed that he proposes to her. She accepts him and in the joy her dearest being, her cat Katie, runs away and is run over by a car. She herself blames Jed and loses all joy in life because Katie gave her the meaning of life.

After Jed apologized several times, Chloe says that she can only love and marry him again when she has joy and purpose in life again. So Jed goes on a search for the meaning of life. Unfortunately, nobody knows the answer to the question of what the meaning of life is. Only a TV report about Max, a reclusive scrap dealer, gives him hope again, because he reveals that he knows the answer to the question, but does not reveal it to anyone. So Jed goes to Max to find out the answer. But he doesn't want him with him and gives him several reasons to disappear. And he succeeds even after attacking him aggressively.

Jed goes to Chloe to see how she is doing, but her courage to live is fading. She is doing so badly that she is hospitalized. So Jed returns to Max for a quick answer so he can save Chloe. But Max has other problems. He watches Sandra, his daughter, who no longer wants to talk to him. Max makes a deal with Jed, if he can get her to talk to Max again, he'll tell Jed the meaning of life. But even Max has no luck with Sandra and learns that Chloe is getting worse and worse, so he begs Max for the answer. But he succinctly rejects Jed by saying that he has long forgotten the answer.

Sandra comes to the junkyard and talks to Jed. She explains to him that she is not Max's daughter, but just a girl who went to school with his daughter. Max's real daughter and his wife died in a traffic accident two years earlier. And after a few months in a coma, Max couldn't admit what had happened. However, Jed realizes that Max has apparently long accepted the truth and is trying to kill himself.

And so Max locks Jed away in the junkyard so that he has enough peace and quiet to hang himself. But Jed can free himself and knows that Max couldn't kill himself. So he goes to him, sees how he has tried hopelessly to hang himself and hears Max tell him that he has long since known what the meaning of life is. So Jed goes up to him and whispers it in his ear. Max smiles and confirms that this is exactly the meaning of life. Knowing this, Jed rushes to his beloved Chloe's hospital, where he finds her perky.

criticism

In the service-movie- Jens Hinrichsen wrote: "Empathetic takes Fridriksson now once again an unusual perspective one. The point of view of a young man with Down syndrome colors and 'crazy' in NICELAND the everyday experiences of normal people, which is echoed in the play on words of the title: Shot in specific locations in Iceland, the film seems to settle in a kind of modern legendary realm, the climate of which is perceived temperatures is determined. The emotional thermometer oscillates between 'Nice' and 'Ice', between the exhilaration of being in love and the absolute freezing point in the marriage of Jed's parents ”.

Joachim Kurz also wrote kino-zeit.de : "Fridrik Thor Fridriksson tells his love story with fairytale and philosophical elements as a great parable about the meaning of life with great sensitivity and just as much a matter of course." In addition, for him it was “one of the most amazing and touching phenomena” of the cinema year.

The lexicon of international film said: “Sensitively staged, convincingly played film as the final part of a trilogy that offers no clear answers to the existential questions raised, but rather emphasizes that questions of the heart have to be wrested from life. The search for meaning, naive at first glance, comes up with unimagined profundity. "

On the Dutch website cuttingedge.be , Wim Duysburgh found it touching to see how far these mentally handicapped people go to find answers to their questions. Niceland is an entertaining film, not "for the large audience, but rather for those who need a moment of reflection".

The Danish website cinemazone.dk saw the film's aesthetic appearance , but found that “the story is unfolding a little too thin”.

Awards

publication

After the film celebrated its world premiere on July 5, 2004 at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival , its official Icelandic theatrical release was on October 1, 2004. In Germany, the film opened in German cinemas on December 6, 2006.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jens Hinrichsen: film-dienst 25/2006  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on film-dienst.kim-info.de , accessed on August 5, 2011@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / film-dienst.kim-info.de  
  2. ↑ Joachim Kurz: Eine Verrückte Liebe on kino-zeit.de , accessed on August 5, 2011
  3. ↑ Wim Duysburgh: Niceland (2004) Zalig de zwakken van geest  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on cuttingedge.be on October 8, 2004 (Dutch), accessed on August 5, 2011@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.cuttingedge.be  
  4. ↑ Niceland on cinemazone.dk (Danish), accessed on August 5, 2011