The Online Reporters:
IKINGUT

Iceland must be like Heaven on Earth... - This thought did not only go once through my head while watching this move. Reason for that were breath-takingly beautiful landscape shots of the Icelandian snow steppe, which the director Gisli Snær Erlingsson uses to turn her movie "Ikingut" into a feast for the eyes.
Otherwise too, the movie was convincing to me - for one, because of the approach Erlingsson takes in respect to the issue of racism: he settles the plot in the past, approximately in the 17th/18th century (nothing more precise can be extrapolated from the movie itself). At that time, the Icelandian boy Boas becomes friends with an Eskimo boy, who was drifted from his homeland, Greenland, over to Iceland on an ice plate. In Iceland now, he is being feared and demonized by the superstitious, because they have never seen "such a thing" before. But through the two boys' friendship, they realize that this "demon" is a human, too. Doch durch die Freundschaft der beiden Jungen wird den anderen Dorfbewohnern klar, dass der "Dämon" ja auch ein Mensch ist.
First, I simply thought, "Yes, yes.. way back, people were still limited, a little naive and quite superstitious..." But I soon realized, that Ikingut is in fact about a very contemporary story; we still are instinctively skeptical towards strangers, to put it politely! Gisli Snær Erlingsson thus conveys a very modern problem that concerns us all, and yet tells a story of an entirely different time of different circumstances and customs.
Yet "Ikingut" is no pessimistic movie: it gives hope and courage, in part because of its good ending - however, I've asked myself, whether the story really had to end in such a positive way. Because in this manner, the plot seemed more like a fairy tale to me und did not match with the rest of the movie. Until the end, it did all seem realisitic, as I thought, as if it all really happened: this in the end, is mostly due to the convincing actors, the plot structure, and also of course the perfect set design, costums and requisites, which all realistically reflect the time's atmosphere.
Although the movie exposes some length at some points, I never was bored while watching it: The plot in "Ikingut", especially in the beginning, ist structured consequently and thrillingly. There are no unnecessary details, that irritate or have no connection to the plot.
Gisli Snær Erlingsson has shot a hat beautiful move with "Ikingut", that touched me. Many elements make this movie worthy of watching - I can therefore recommend it.

Lukas Macher