Noi Albinoi Review

Noi Albinoi
Disconnected from his family and expelled from school, a rebellious teenage albino falls for the new waitress at the garage cafe in his Icelandic fjord town and embarks upon a series of comic misadventures.

by David Parkinson |
Published on
Release Date:

01 Jan 2002

Running Time:

93 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

Noi Albinoi

An Icelandic variation on the slacker movie might not sound the most inviting of prospects. But Dagur Keri not only makes Noi's (Lemarquis) trials and tribulations matter, he also relates them in a meandering, offbeat manner that recalls both Aki Kaurismaki and Jim Jarmusch at their best.

There's incident aplenty - a nocturnal visit to a natural history museum, a failed bank robbery and a pivotal prediction from a fortune-teller, but Kßri keeps everything so low key that we're never sure whether to smile or wince at Lemarquis' naive attempts either to impress Iris (Hansdottir) or kick against the staid system that drove his father (Gunnarsson) to drunken isolation.

With Rasmus Videbaek's photography capturing the forbidding nature of both the landscape and the town's conventionality, this confirms the excellent impression that Icelandic cinema made with Cold Fever and 101 Reykjavik.

Beautifully paced and played with charm, this is a fond evocation of a unique place and a sympathetic take on teenage insecurity.
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