An affecting portrait of grief in its rawest form, Rúnar Rúnarsson’s fourth feature demonstrates the Icelandic filmmaker’s ability to convey the stormiest and subtlest emotions of characters in crisis. Sharply focused and intimately scaled, his latest begins on a note of great happiness, as two students in their early twenties — Una (Elín Hall) and Diddi (Baldur Einarsson) — enjoy a spring sunset in Reykjavik and talk of their future together, a future that’s even brighter now that Diddi is about to break up with his girlfriend back home.

With the next day comes a tragedy. Reeling from grief, Una navigates a series of charged interactions with others dealing with their own welter of emotions, all while struggling to decide whether to share a truth that could leave someone else shattered.

Having already made an impression on Festival audiences in Baldvin Zophoníasson’s Let Me Fall (TIFF ’18), Hall establishes herself as one of European cinema’s most compelling young actors with an astonishing and deeply felt performance. She’s matched at every turn by a cast who are equally fearless and a filmmaker able to emphasize the value of love and connection and show how they may be found even in grief’s darkest moments.

The Festival is thrilled to present a second new film by Rúnarsson within the same programme. A short that was crafted in the same period as When The Light Breaks, O serves as another affecting study in human frailty with its story of a man struggling to keep his demons at bay for the sake of his daughter’s wedding day.

JASON ANDERSON

Content advisory: mature themes