In “Summerlight and Then Comes the Night”, Elfar Adalsteins directs a stellar Icelandic ensemble cast from his screenplay adaptation of Jon Kalman Stefansson’s celebrated novel.
If you are willing to lend an ear, the village is brimming with stories. It may tell you the one about the prominent factory manager who one night dreams in Latin and ditches his career for old books and a telescope. Or the one about the farmer who erects beautiful fences but has a hard time controlling the desires of the flesh, leading to spectacular revenge. And of a mammoth policeman and his wafer-thin son who carves out moorland birds, of a dance at Community Hall, a glorious dinner party and a chiseled rock that can break life’s finely woven thread.
“I vividly remember the hypnotizing effects of reading Jon Kalman’s brilliantly-woven tapestry of anecdotes for the first time,” said Adalsteins. “His lyrical prose and his unique insight into the depths of the human heart made me feel a deep rooted association with all the characters of the seaside village, just like the one I was born and raised in.”