A White White Day Review - Scandinavian Film Festival 2019

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Tue 16 Jul 2019 - Wed 07 Aug 2019

Something that has been in the spotlight for a few years now is men and how they deal with their emotions. With alarming suicide rates and more and more men coming forward with issues with depression, there has never been a better time to talk about this previously shunned topic.

A White White Day tries to tackle these themes, exploring isolation, jealousy, and anger and how they can consume us. A White White Day or Hvitur, Hvitur Dagur follows Ingimundur (Ingvar Sigurdsson). After his wife dies in a car accident, Ingimundur, a currently off-duty police chief, becomes increasingly more isolated and colder. He spends all his time renovating his house and taking care of his granddaughter. Upon finding evidence that his wife may have cheated on him, his grief becomes anger which leads to a downward spiral of obsession and revenge.

There are a lot of important things to be said in A White White Day. How men and people in general deal with grief, loneliness and emotions altogether. We see Ingimundur's transformation as his inability to let go or let himself properly grieve leads to lashing out and self-destructive behaviour.

In true Scandinavian fashion, A White White Day is not a fast-paced film. It meanders along the path that seems to want to emulate as close to an everyday life as it can. A sort of tension does build however at a crawl, yet we are still given a payoff when the final confrontation takes place. One thing that may be somewhat problematic is how this film deals with the actions of its protagonist. In his journey, Ingimundur ends up hurting his loved ones, his co-workers and others in a few ways including assault, violet fits of rage and abuse. Yet the film resolves the relationship with his granddaughter and the eventual acceptance of his feelings. This felt like the character's downfall and his redemption weren't quite equal. The way the character evolved didn't seem to make up for all the horrible things he committed.

A White White Day brings to the fore subject matter that does need to be represented more in media, however, the way it goes about its delivery may have missed the mark. Either way, this is still a film worth exploring for subject alone.

Check out A White White Day and many others at this year's Scandinavian Film Festival. On now until the 7th of August and Palace Nova Cinemas.

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!date 16/07/2019 -- 07/08/2019
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