In 2016, an Icelandic film Hjartasteinn or Heartstone, was released in Toronto International Film Festival about two young male best friends exploring their youths and the unexplainable feeling that goes along with it. That same year, Closet Monster, Moonlight, Being 17 are some of the most notable gay films, bagging most of critics' and publics' attention.
But Hjartasteinn is a tear jerker. Its perfection and captivating in so many level.
This film was shot on Earth's literal heaven - Iceland. And there's something about how it was shot, that you just can't take your eyes out. It shows the breathtaking landscapes of the small village in Iceland while contrasting the ugly truth of human inclination towards same sex attraction, that is implicitly present in their village. Every pan and angle of the camera showcases heavenly world that sets a backdrop to a sad, culturally-tethered reality that is beautiful and tragic at the same time.
What made the film so engaging and resonating in everyone's emotion is how it captured a sense of societal pressure in becoming who you are or expressing what you feel, either you're in Israel, or America, or in Iceland. The painful gaze that the world will inflict to you for having young homosexual attractions and the guilt of falling in love with your best friend, is enough to make you hurt yourself and drown your emotions for life. And this movie envelops that.
Whether you watch this film as an adult or as a teenager, it still melts your heart away, and pulls you back in time where your heart was still young, and throbbing, in the most genuine way. As a child, I for one experience quite a similar case, not close but the idea of young, unrequited, untold secrets, sneaking out, belonging, relationships, and heartaches, are enough to unlock them back.
This movie simply makes you wanna go to ICELAND even more. Experiencing a puppy love or not in your teenage lives, this movie speaks for you. It has cold atmosphere allegorizing the seen and unseen realities within the village, its truthful, it's painful, and it's easily loveable. Thor and Christians' friendship is cute and very relatable to the level where it aches you.
But Hjartasteinn is a tear jerker. Its perfection and captivating in so many level.
This film was shot on Earth's literal heaven - Iceland. And there's something about how it was shot, that you just can't take your eyes out. It shows the breathtaking landscapes of the small village in Iceland while contrasting the ugly truth of human inclination towards same sex attraction, that is implicitly present in their village. Every pan and angle of the camera showcases heavenly world that sets a backdrop to a sad, culturally-tethered reality that is beautiful and tragic at the same time.
What made the film so engaging and resonating in everyone's emotion is how it captured a sense of societal pressure in becoming who you are or expressing what you feel, either you're in Israel, or America, or in Iceland. The painful gaze that the world will inflict to you for having young homosexual attractions and the guilt of falling in love with your best friend, is enough to make you hurt yourself and drown your emotions for life. And this movie envelops that.
Whether you watch this film as an adult or as a teenager, it still melts your heart away, and pulls you back in time where your heart was still young, and throbbing, in the most genuine way. As a child, I for one experience quite a similar case, not close but the idea of young, unrequited, untold secrets, sneaking out, belonging, relationships, and heartaches, are enough to unlock them back.
This movie simply makes you wanna go to ICELAND even more. Experiencing a puppy love or not in your teenage lives, this movie speaks for you. It has cold atmosphere allegorizing the seen and unseen realities within the village, its truthful, it's painful, and it's easily loveable. Thor and Christians' friendship is cute and very relatable to the level where it aches you.