WHEN THE LIGHT BREAKS

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Storyline (warning: spoilers)

When the Light Breaks is an intense and beautifully crafted contemplative Icelandic drama that weaves together themes of loss, change, and fleeting connections. When the light breaks on a long summer’s day in Iceland, Una, a young art student encounters love, friendship, sorrow and beauty – from one sunset to another.
Without ever working above a whisper, Runar Runarsson finds distinctive and unexpectedly stirring ways to portray grief and untimely death. The film follows a group of young adults — chief among them Una — in the Icelandic city as they cope with the unexpected loss of Diddi following a tunnel disaster, one of the worst in Iceland’s history.
News of the explosion sends shockwaves through Reykjavik, a devastating catastrophe whose force is communicated through a quiet sequence near the start of the film and later with a shot of the country’s flags flown at half-mast. It also brings together the unlikely crew composed of Diddi’s bandmate and roommate Gunni; his childhood friends Siggi and Bassi; Diddi’s girlfriend Klara; and the aforementioned Una, his bandmate and lover. Bonded by their friend’s death, the group floats through the city, buoyed by their sadness and shock as they navigate the rough emotional terrain this tragedy presents.
An appreciation for grief’s minor moments coupled with a striking visual language elevate this slender drama. What sets When the Light Breaks apart is its deeply nuanced performances, particularly from Elin Hall, whose portrayal of Una’s grief is raw and palpable. Runarsson’s film is a co-production between Iceland, the Netherlands, Croatia and France and eschews easy melodrama for a more tacit, sensory exploration of the sudden connections that death forges among the living. This narrative presents images that anyone who can relate to losing a loved one at a young age will find impossible to shake.