„Rúnar Rúnarsson hefur gert yfirvegaða frásögn um breytinguna frá unglingsárum til fullorðinsára sem er miklu harkalegri og grimmdarlegri en virðist við fyrstu sýn,“ segir Alfonso Rivera hjá Cineuropa meðal annars um Þresti sem nú er sýnd á San Sebastian hátíðinni.
Rivera segir ennfremur meðal annars:
…that soft, faint, almost artificial light lends the film a slightly dreamlike atmosphere, in which the air we breathe is simultaneously pure and disquieting. Rúnar Rúnarsson keeps such a steady hand on the camera that it never emphasises particular actions or makes them stand out – rather, they are all portrayed with the gentle pace that prevails when one lives in a rural fishing environment, characterised by a tedium, distance and routine that, paradoxically, end up magnifying everything.
This place of captivating beauty (which the filmmaker was already familiar with and had borne in mind while writing the screenplay) enchants us and, through its mise-en-scène, which relies heavily on silences and glances, the movie whisks us away to that moment of personal isolation and bewilderment at which new emotions that are difficult to channel begin to domineer the existence of every teenager. This is also compounded by the lingering close-ups of young actor Atli Óskar Fjalarsson, who is supported by the magnificent Ingvar E Sigurdsson as the surly father and a conspirational grandmother played brilliantly by Kristbjörg Kjeld.
Rúnarsson claims that with this film, a work of poetic realism, he has painted a portrait of the grim reality of his country, since what he recounts in Sparrows has been extracted from various events that he has experienced directly himself or second hand, through his friends’ accounts: something terrifying that is unveiled in the third act of this stark farewell to innocence.
Sjá nánar hér: Sparrows : An abrupt farewell to innocence – Cineuropa
