This film is part of Rentals
Driving Mum
Jon drives his mums corpse across Iceland in Hilmar Oddsson’s darkly comic odyssey of self-discovery and acceptance, beautifully filmed in crisp black and white.
Director: Hilmar Oddsson
Overview
Middle-aged and disappointed, Jón (Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson) spends his days knitting and listening to the radio with his domineering elderly mother (Kristbjörg Kjeld) on their rural Icelandic farmstead. But Jón’s isolated world is upended when his mum suddenly passes away. Having left him a series of instructions to follow upon her death, Jón sets out on a journey across Iceland to honour her final wishes – including being buried in Eyrarbakki, her home village. Strapping her into his Ford Cortina, and with the beloved (and scene-stealing) family dog Brezhnev in tow, Jón sets off on a strange odyssey.
Beautifully filmed in crisp black and white, Hilmar Oddsson’s darkly comedic road movie is a bewitching 1980-set odyssey of self-discovery and acceptance, with a fantastic central performance from Gunnarsson.
infrequent strong language, moderate sex
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