Devil's Island

A decade after WWII, the Americans abandon Camp Thule, Iceland - bestowing makeshift homes on the slum dwellers of Reykjavik. Gógó departs with them, but leaves behind her three grown kids - Baddi, Danni and Dollí, who live with their grandparents, Tommi (Halldórsson) and Karolína (Jónsdóttir). At first glance, Fridriksson's charmer looks studiedly eccentric. There's something cartoonish about the motley bunch of ne'er-do-wells. They may be out of it, but they're not immune to the world, in fact they're peculiarly vulnerable to change. Baddi (a stellar performance from Kormákur) visits his mother in the States, and comes back a rock'n'roll hound dog who rules the roost with his Cadillac, hep talk and cocksure moves. It's soon obvious there's nothing for him in Iceland any more. This is a bright, tangy, highly engaging account of the old world trying to get to grips with the new. The incidental structure gives the extended cast plenty of room to make their mark, and despite the sometimes harrowing circumstances, Fridriksson always keeps the energy up.