Salt

Set in a remote fishing village in Iceland, partly improvised (and, it seems, partly shot) by the actors themselves, this low key Icelandic production is part naturalist road movie, part transcendental mood piece. It's directed by a non-Icelandic-speaking American with a number of non-pros, including Gudnadóttir. She's fantastic as the disconsolate young fish-processing worker Hildur, who invites herself on her elder sister Svava and Svava's boyfriend's escape trip to Reykjavik. The economy of means is evident (floaty, diffuse hand-held shots and all) and Hildur's Sea-Lion metaphysics a little pressed but, nevertheless, the film achieves some miraculous moments of non-ingratiating acting and a simple feeling of authenticity that render its lack of conventional narrative thrust completely unimportant.