Noi Albinoi is an Icelandic movie directed by Dagur Kari released in 2003. It was a selected in a dozen of film festivals.
The film is based on the life of Noi, a teenager that lives in a desolate town that during the winter time gets cut off from the outside world. Is he the village idiot, or a genius in disguise? He spends most of the time in a hidden cellar at his grandmother’s house, dreaming about a different life in exotic places. More often than not he cuts class to go to the local gas station, where he frequently breaks into the slot machine and rigs it for an assured jackpot. One day at school, he is asked by the principal to meet a specialist. The specialist asks him a series of questions, including “How many times a day do you masturbate?” Nόi responds by asking the specialist the same question, simultaneously solving a Rubik’s Cube. Things changes when an attractive young girl moves in town from the city. Iris and Noi little by little end up in a romance story that gives to both the hope of escaping from that place….
Dagur Kari describes in a brilliant and very sensitive way the anxiety, the emotions and the complexity of an creative teenager stuck on find they way to express himself in a town that for him is more a prison then a place of opportunity. The Icelandic landscapes filmed are something remarkable and unique that, like a paint, immediately project you into the story.
Critics says:
Gerald Peary
“Kari combines Kaurismaki’s deadpan minimalism and Truffaut’s sensitivity toward adolescent yearning with a hefty dose of gallows humor, and tops it all off with an apocalyptic ending.”
Skye Sherwin
“a coming-of-age tale, bound between grinding humdrum and exquisite surrealism.”
On the playlist I’ve included Kari’s band Slowbow witch also wrote the movie’s soundtrack and other musicians that had collaborated with them. I also added tunes about my favorites Icelandic band that somehow reminds me of the scenes/landscapes in the movie.
Playlist:
01. Slowbow – Aim For A Smile
02. Mum – Green Grass of Tunnel
03. Seabear – Cat Piano
04. Bjork – Hyperballad
05. Olafur Arnalds – Haegt Kemur Ljosio
06. Var – Silence Is Recovered
07. Sigur Ros – Heysatan
08. Amiina – Perth
09. Emiliana Torrini – Sunny Road
10. Vok – Before…