WRITER & DIRECTOR
Hlynur Pálmason
Godland (Vanskabte land), A White White Day (Hvítur hvítur dagur), Winter Brothers (Vinterbrødre)

STARS
Sverrir Gudnason, Saga Garðarsdóttir, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Ingvar Sigurddsson and Anders Mossling

For city dwellers who live a constantly busy and fast-paced lifestyle as I do, Icelandic drama The Love That Remains offers a rural retreat on-screen whose clear objective is to gently remind its audience of the importance yet fragility of family and the precious moments we can both absorb when present or miss when absent.

Through a series of tenderly rendered vignettes and a loose narrative that sporadically comes to the fore in between, The Love That Remains captures a year in the life of an Icelandic family of five as the parents carefully work through their separation. Navigating the break-up is made more challenging with Magnus (Sverrir Gudnason) being away at sea for work for extended periods of time. As for Anna (Saga Garðarsdóttir), she is hoping to gain recognition for her artwork and ensuring their three children are protected from the pending separation is one of her priorities.

This intimate and meditative film, which was Iceland’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards, is well-intended, boasts serene imagery and has its heartwarming moments, but on the whole is not anywhere near as attention-diverting as I needed it to be. The longer absences of plot and components that come with it, such as storytelling, characterisation and their trajectory is something I felt missing as strongly as Anna and her children must have felt by their father’s absence. While the aforementioned vignettes are absorbing and have their moments, the reliance on them courtesy of their volume and the duration they claim in this film will mean The Love That Remains narrows its accessibility to audiences. For a period of time, it was satisfying to be transported to the slower paced present this film grounds audiences in, but as time passed on by, I started to wish I was with my family on this solo Friday evening movie outing instead.

The Love That Remains is showing in selected cinemas across Australia from August 20th, 2026.

Moviedoc thanks Palace Films for the invitation to the screening of this film.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc

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