Andið eðlilega (And Breathe Normally)

Andið eðlilega (And Breathe Normally), dir. Ísold Uggadóttir, 2018 Iceland/Sweden/Belgium, 95 minutes, in Icelandic and Crioulu (Guinea-Bissau creole) with English subtitles and in English without subtitles 💖
Tuesday, June 19, 6:30 p.m. Castro
BAY AREA PREMIERE

Andið eðlilega (And Breathe Normally)

Lára (Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir) is a single mother, strug­gling to raise her son Eldar, fighting a losing battle just to keep a roof over their heads. She gets a job as a trainee bor­der guard at Reykjavik Airport, where she crosses paths with Adja (Babetida Sadjo, pictured left), a refugee from Guinea-Bissau hoping to seek asylum in Canada. Lára, on her first day on the job, notices that Adja’s passport prompts a warning from the computer. Adja then spends weeks in bureaucratic limbo, applying for asylum in Iceland even though her family made it onwards to Toronto. Meanwhile, Lára and Eldar have been evicted, leaving them to live out of her small car. Lára and Adja’s paths cross again and again, leading them warily into friendship.

The main characters give superb performances in this understated story with minimal super­fluous dialogue. Ísold deftly captures the dilemma of a single mother living on the frayed edge and a refugee from Guinea-Bissau, one of the most impoverished countries in the world. The stark landscape of Iceland in September (yes, it’s not even close to winter yet) forms a bleak but beautiful backdrop to a story teetering on the edge between hope and despair. Definitely a MUST SEE.

Note to hearing-impaired audiences: although most of the dialogue is in Icelandic and Crioulu with English subtitles, significant parts of the dialogue, in particular almost all of the dialogue with Adja, are in English without subtitles.

• IMDb • trailer (with Icelandic subtitles) • a short clip (with English subtitles) •