Nói Albínói

Nói Albínói is the name of the film but Nói is also the name of the main character (actor Tómas Lemarquis of French ancestry as his father Gérard, also acting in this film, is a French teacher and correspondent for Le Monde on Iceland), not being an albino as the name might indicate but having a autoimmune disorder called Alopeca totalis, meaning that he has lost all his hair, this making him somewhat 'different' in the eyes of the people in the not so populated Icelandic village where he lives.

Nói (Kristmundsson) is a 17-year-old living with his grandmother in this remote part of Iceland.
His father Kiddi (Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson) is an alcoholic, trying to continue his work as a taxi driver. Their relations are very distant in spite of the small distances in the village and Kiddi is trying to encourage Nói to continue his studies at school - something Nói finds boring - in order not to wind up as his father with broken dreams.
Nói's daily life circles around the local book store and a cellar in the house of his grandmother, where he hides from the demands and discussions with his father, grandmother, teachers and others who he finds disturbing his daily life in his own 'dreamworld', building himself secret dreams, not to deeply rooted in the 'real life'.
On the same time he seems very intelligent and this might be the problem: An intelligent person, finding the life on the island being somewhat of a final destination in life but not being in possession of the creativity and decisiveness to change his life.
On the local gas station he one day finds a new employee, a young, attractive woman - Íris (Elín Hansdóttir) - with whom he falls in love, gradually initiating her into his magnificent future plans. They are going to leave the island and why not try to move to Hawaii, on of the islands they have seen on a map. Evidentally it's not a question of 'the island' per se but what island.
Nói has been given a present by his grandmother, a View Master where he can see 'the world' and among many photos a beautiful island where he intends taking Íris.

The final parts of the film includes him working as a grave-digger (prophetical), his grandmother visiting a fortune teller in order to ask what shall become of Nói, the latter stealing a car and the end (or new beginning?) - when hiding in his cave - when an avalanche is set loose and his father, grandmother and Íris - among others - are killed, leaving Nói even more lonely than before.
He do however find his View Master and continues dreaming about his island in the sun, finally realized or not?

This film deals with the loneliness, the isolation of a life on an island but not only because it's an island but because people obviously tends to become more introvert, influenced by the quiet surroundings, the majestic nature and the paradox of geographical nearness combined with relational distance. At least in a Nordic/Scandinavian context?

We also get to meet a person being alienated not only through his physical appearance but through him being different intellectually with a high level of philosophical thinking and opposition against his 'natural habitat'.
Unfortunately for him, he is also a person - so common - who more attend to his dreams than trying to realize them, waiting until it's to late, just like his father. Evidentally our genes are some very strong factors. On the other hand, noone is foreordained a life resembling the life of ones parents or relatives, everyone can - to a higher or lower degree - brake away from their day-to-day life, building their own personal future but then one can't wait to long, as we can't know what the future brings concerning sickness, poverty, natural or other catastrophies, obstacles we're not able to controle.

It's however a very charming film with the main characters performance in the center of the picture in every sense. The above trailer displays the clumsy and impractical Nói, in this sense analogous to me (Gunnar).