Ivalu (2023) User Reviews

"I don't want to live there without you."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 18 February 2023]

Young Pipaluk (Mila Heilmann Kreutzmann) wakes up one morning to find her sister missing and goes on a frantic search to find her. As she does so, flashback memories of Ivalu (Nivi Larsen) reveal moments in her life that both sisters shared. A story Pipaluk liked Ivalu to tell had to do with the 'Mother of the Sea' who lived in the ocean depths. Ivalu stated how she would like to visit this mother and cut her tangled hair. Soon, a more disturbing memory intrudes on Pipaluk, one in which she recalls their father (Angunnguaq Larsen) entering their bedroom at night and shutting the younger sister out while he had his way with Ivalu, the sounds of her older sister's anguish audible through the door. Eventually, Pipaluk's search brings her across a vast meadow to the edge of a fjord where she suddenly realizes that Ivalu made good on her desire to join with the 'Mother of the Sea'.

This Danish film is a contender for a 2023 Oscar in the category of Best Live Action Short Films. It's a poignant story that hits hard with a somber tone of finality and sadness. I was lucky enough to catch this short along with the four other contenders for this year's Academy Award at the Paramount Theater in Middletown, New York. If not for this limited showing, I don't know how else I would have been able to see it. So, Congratulations to the Paramount for making it available to enthusiastic cinema fans like me.

Beautiful, heartbreaking but lightweight

[ossie85 · 6/10 · 25 February 2023]

Ivalu, a Danish short live-action film up for an Oscar in 2023, is a story of grief, abuse and a strong sisterly bond.

While this film quietly and efficiently tells its story of connection, it does so - in my opinion - by sacrificing some of the impact of the dreadful horrors the girls endured.

The subtext is not subtle enough to be interesting, and comes across to me as a kind of dark fairytale, when I think it would have been more impactful to address the reality of abuse.

It shouldn't be about so much was lost, but what was taken.

But that's my take, and the film isn't made for me. This is a film I'm sure will be received by many as beautifully poignant, and they would have every justification to think that.

The Raven Is A Messenger And A Psychopomp

[boblipton · 7/10 · 26 February 2023]

Mila Heilmann Kreutzmann's big sister has gone missing, so she wanders around Greenland looking for her between school, home, and a visit by the Queen. She is shadowed by, or perhaps pursues, a large raven.

Based on a graphic novel, this is a slow-moving sixteen minutes that gives you plenty of time to appreciate the stark beauty of Greenland, a glacier or two, and its ice-scoured rocks. It's also long enough to induce some personal anxiety as the main character seems to be pretty slow in realizing what is going on, which is not a story-telling technique that appeals to me. I don't think it's good form for an audience member to shout advice to a character on screen. Still, kudos to cinematographer Rasmus Heise.

Ivaluating this, I would not say it turned into a success

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 10 March 2023]

"Ivalu" is a new live action short film from Denmark or Greenland if we are more precise and this is also in the Greenlandic language, even if there is not a great deal of talking in here. It runs for a quarter of an hour, slightly over and I got to watch this one on the occasion of a showing of the animated and live action short film that got nominated for the 2023 edition of the Academy Awards. This is one of them. When I say that it is a new movie, this could not be any more fitting because the film is indeed a 2023 release and with this it is surely a bit of an exception compared to the other nominees that were all screened in 2022 already. This may also explain why this one here, according to imdb, has almost no awards attention away from the Oscars at this point. Or maybe the reason is also that it is simply not particularly good. I would say it is my least favorite from the nominees in this category and it is not even a small gap. I was not enthusiastic over any of these, but this is the only one I would not recommend watching and I believe that it also has only a theoretical chance to take home the Oscar next weekend. The writer and director is Anders Walter and if there is any argument that it could win the Oscar, then maybe it is that Denmark always does well in this category and that Walter is 1 for 1 at the Oscars as he won indeed when he was nominated the first time. Now it is the second time. 2 for 2 seems very unlikely though.

About the cast, there is also not too much to say. The only grown-up actor has worked on other projects in the past and the kids are pretty new to the industry. It is a small cast, so in theory it could work as a stage play too, but as a great deal about the film is about nature and atmosphere related to climate and weather, it would be very difficult to put into effect on a theater stage. Anders' co-director Jørgensen has worked on other projects too, like the pretty famous "Borgen", but he was also on "The Fight for Greenland", just like the lead actress here. Maybe this is where their paths crossed. Perhaps a nature documentary instead of this film could have been the better choice. The entire project is based on a graphic novel by Morten Dür, not the first time one of his works got turned into a movie. I hope the 2022 adaptation "Robotbror" turned out better than this one here. Don't be fooled by the Oscar nomination. The film loses itself in landscape imagery, shocking inclusions of one character sexually abusing a minor and pretentious pseudo-important metaphors linked to ravens without ever including a story and plot that could have turned these aspects into something watchable. The outcome is a disappointment. I suggest you skip the watch.