Parents

We can only hope that the cooporation between Ragnar Bragason and the theatre group Vesterport has a sequel, if only because their way of working in Parents, the second part of a thematic duet (see also Children), has blossomed dramatically and narratively. Parents, again dynamically shot in black & white by Bergsteinn Björggulfsson, continues to surprise right up to the end. Inspired by the methods of Cassavetes and Leigh, there is very convincing realism in the acting. The actors were instructed to base their characters loosely on their own lives, or on people from their surroundings, and to study the character’s profession.
In Parents, less raw and probably more mature than Children, we see how three desperate characters become involved with each other. The dentist Oscar is married and has adopted children, but also wants a child of his own. When he finds out that his wife has been deceiving him for years, he decides it is time for a change. The stockbroker Einar is successful at work, but not in his private life. He has been living in a hotel for years in the expectation that his wife will regret throwing him out. And Katrin has just returned from an eight-year stay in Sweden and wants to get back the child that was brought up by her mother. She tries to start a new life and takes a job as a dental assistant, but her troubled past won’t let go of her. (GT)

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