JAR CITY

A grief-stricken father seeks understanding of the brain disease that killed his daughter while a police inspector investigates the murder of an ageing thug. Confidently interweaving their lives and long-hidden secrets, Kormákor (101 Reykjavik) adapts Arnaldur Indridason’s crime novel. MT

by Baltasar Kormákur
2006 / 95 minutes / Iceland / Icelandic with English subtitles
strong violence, sex references & one use of very strong language

Secrets and lies in an icy climate

Baltasar Kormákur  paints a picture of  an atmospheric, inward-looking, cut-off  Iceland, unlike the modern view  depicted in 101 Reykjavik (2000) - hints of  gloomy Icelandic sagas and Ingmar Bergman here. An adaptation of Arnaldur Indridason’s successful crime novel Tainted Blood (Mýrin),  this film follows the world-weary detective Erlendur  (cut from the same cloth of North-European melancholy as Sweden’s Kurt Wallander) as he literally unearths a 30year old crime while investigating the murder of an elderly criminal, Holberg.

Meanwhile a bereaved father searches for an understanding of the mysterious brain-disease that killed his daughter.  Erlendur (who has a troubled relationship with his own drug-addled daughter) discovers a photo of a  grave from the 1970’s in Holberg’s house, and this leads to the exhumation of a body, DNA tests, and secrets unmasked through the accessing of the  genetic information held in the national Icelandic database, where all the population’s medical records are held. MT

Director’s Point of View

I wanted to create a double look, a look inwards and outward. Excessive violence affects me most deeply in the world. When I show violence, it is always brief and not very attractive. Violence is something very irretrievable- it is an existentialist concept. This is something concrete and unpleasant. When you use it you must also demonstrate the consequences. You cannot glorify this kind of thing – you must take responsibility.

Baltasar Kormákur

Critical Thoughts

• Multiple winner, Iceland’s Edda Awards
  
  
• Add… Kormákur's clever manipulation of chronology, a haunting choral score, some very topical material on data privacy, and a crime story that is never far removed from tragedy, and you have a superior noir with a very strong sense of place - Film4
  
  
• … the stirring yet troubling sound of a male choir (who) chant over many scenes, as if summoning up the storms and sea swells, like voices of Nordic gods watching over actions on earth of which they heartily disapprove - The Observer
  
  
• Thought-provoking… a satisfying, altogether distinctive piece of filmmaking Time Out
  
  
• Cracking police thriller… held me gripped until the very end The Guardian
  

Online Resources

Full cast, crew & music credits: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/408893/Jar-City/credits 
or September 2008 Sight & Sound
Further analysis at: http://cineuropa.org/film.aspx?documentID=70544


Audience Reactions

Replies  10      9      8      7      6      5      4      3      2      1      0      Average 

 82           3     20     22    15    13     4      2      2      0      2      0      73.7

• Excellent - better than Wallander;
• Brilliant - let's have more from Iceland!
• Excellent plot, dialogue and photography;
• Haunting and beautiful, loved the sound-track;
• Good plt;
• Entertainingly gruesome;
• Good to have some drama;
• Not one for veggies;