#Godland (2022), currently on BBC iPlayer.
The film speaks to me on many levels. Among other things, it offers the most compelling, visually most congenial representation of the "photographer's eye".
Late 19th century, a young Danish priest comes to a remote part of Iceland. He is confronted with an imposing, beautiful and unwelcoming natural enivironment, and with deep cultural, political and personal conflicts. The narrative is slow and poetic, brutal at times, supported by intense visual imagery of the Icelandic landscape.
The priest carries with him a wooden large format camera, along with glass plates and the whole wet-plate processing equipment. The film's camera work lovingly reproduces the perspective of a photographer looking at the groundglass of their view-camera, using a 4:3 framing with the rounded corners of a typical ground glass. Magic.
Director #HlynurPálmason, camera #MariaVHausswolff.



