1996 · drama · period · family
Devil's Island
Directed by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson1h 44m1996
Devil's Island is a bitter sweet tale of Iceland in the fifties. Life is rough in Reykjavik's post-war slum of Camp Thule, where the abandoned US military barracks have been turned into makeshift homes. Struggling wives and their hard-working husbands try to make ends meet. The younger generation dreams of dollars, Rock'n'Roll and the American way of life. To celebrate or to drown their misery - they're never short of a good reason to booze. Devil's Island vividly depicts the everyday life of a wacky family, their neighbours and friends and shows how some of their dreams come true and others don't.
Our read: Devil's Island (1996) reads as a sombre, steady, grounded drama · period · family entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook.
Sombre, steady, measured drama / period, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, measured.
- sombre
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How Devil's Island feels to watch.
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“You want an Icelandic bittersweet comedy of postwar slum families and dreams.”
Skip it tonight — Skip if family tragedy mixed with comedy or Icelandic subtitles drain you.
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