The Ice Palace

In the depths of a deep-frozen Norwegian winter, two just-adolescent girls, Siss and Unn, sneak off to Unn's attic bedroom and undress for each other. Although nothing concrete happens, the following day Unn is so overwhelmed by guilt that she runs off to a nearby frozen waterfall, and wandering through caves of ice, finally lays down and dies. The rest of the film focuses on Siss' almost wordless grieving, unable to tell the town elders why her friend disappeared, becoming progressively numbed herself by her inability to understand what has happened. With little dialogue and minimal action, Blom uses the landscape of winter to express strong longing and stronger repression. A cross between Picnic at Hanging Rock and the poetic melancholia of an Ibsen play, The Ice Palace is a bitter-sweet dream of snow and shadow, beautiful to watch.