AllMovie

Buried in her subconscious is a memory Sissa (Christine Carr) can't quite recall. It has something to do with her mother's murder. It's been nagging at her for years, now. When the man (Egill Olafsson) who claims he didn't do the deed is released from prison and returns to work for her father, she is intrigued by him. Nothing about him disturbs her, as she may have thought it would. Instead, she is quite attracted to him, despite the disapproving gaze of her tyrannical but slightly resigned father (Bessi Bjarnasson). Their relationship progresses nicely, as does the ex-con mechanic's fatherlike relationship with her younger brother until, finally, that nagging memory comes fully to the surface, and all hell breaks loose. This psychological drama won critical acclaim in its native Iceland and at film festivals, and reviewers felt that its poor reception by general audiences had something to do with its stark realism.