Quake Skjálfti - Film Review Scandinavian Film Festival 2022

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Tue 12 Jul 2022 - Wed 10 Aug 2022

Quake (Skjálfti) - Film Review (Scandinavian Film Festival 2022)

In snow-blanketed Reykjavik, Saga (Anita Briem) is accompanying her six-year-old son Ivar (played by Benjamín Árni Daðason) home from school. It appears to be an uneventful scene, but Saga seems nervous, especially when Ivar vanishes from view. Saga frantically calls out and the boy appears - he was behind a tree and just wanted to play hide and seek. Moments later the scene does get darker: Saga experiences a severe epileptic attack and collapses.



Saga wakes in hospital suffering from severe memory loss. She is reluctant to admit this to anyone for fear of losing custody of her son. But she sort of already has: her parents and older sister have decided Ivar should live with Saga's estranged husband Bergur (Sveinn Geirsson) until they are confident Saga is healthy. Saga seemingly has no say in the matter.

Saga is determined to regain control of her life, but her brain seems to be malfunctioning. We learn that she has experienced epileptic attacks since childhood and that with medication and support she has managed to lead a relatively successful life. In addition to caring for her son, she is a writer trying to finish her latest novel. But her memory loss renders the notion of completing her book impossible. She becomes focused solely on projecting herself as a capable mother.

But Saga's seizure in the park and subsequent memory loss has seemingly opened up repressed memories from her childhood. Scenes begin to play in her head and she becomes consumed with them, eventually abandoning everything to focus on unravelling the secrets in her past.



Directed by Tinna Hrafnsdóttir (who also stars as Saga's older sister) and based on a novel by Audur Jonsdóttir, Quake is a tense and absorbing psychological mystery. The film cleverly takes us inside Saga's world, a world once assured with work and motherhood. Now everything for Saga is in peril, and despite the presence of her family and ex-husband (who seems fairly reasonable), Saga is actually on her own, left with a mind determined to reveal something, if only it can be pieced together.

Quake presents its subject matter deftly, gradually unravelling the story from Saga's perspective in a way that proves gripping. The film is striking visually and engagingly composed. The howling winter winds of Iceland prove a fitting backdrop to an intriguing and rewarding story.



Quake (Skjálfti) is screening as part of the Scandinavian Film Festival which runs July-August. See scandinavianfilmfestival.com for details.

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!date 12/07/2022 -- 10/08/2022
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