Noi the Albino (2003) User Reviews (56)

haunting tale of a bored adolescent

[Buddy-51 · 8/10 · 19 March 2005]

In the spare and poetic "Noi the Albino," the title character is a seventeen-year-old gifted underachiever who lives with his grandmother in a dreary little village on the coast of northern Iceland. This would be a harsh, isolated environment for anyone to grow up in, but it is particularly trying for a misfit adolescent with few social skills and no real hope for the future. Noi, whose generally aloof, alcoholic father lives on his own in a different part of town, spends most of his time trudging purposelessly through the snowy streets of the village or holing up in the basement room he's carved out for himself as a kind of sanctuary from a world too utterly depressing to contemplate. Bored by school and bereft of friends, this young man drifts through life, dreaming of the day when he will be able to live on a very different kind of island in the South Seas, a location light years removed from this place where the interiors are every bit as stark and forbidding as the white-on-white world outside.

"Noi the Albino" is one of those films in which the very lack of anything significant happening becomes the central theme and message of the work. Noi lives a life that is so uneventful and boring that it would drive virtually any one of us to the brink of madness. We hardly blame him when we see him dozing through his classes at school or pilfering change from a mock slot machine set up in the local restaurant. Yet, despite the fact that virtually nothing of consequence happens, the film itself is a fascinating mood piece that seeps into our bones and makes us sympathize with the plight of the strange young man who occupies center stage in the drama. Most of the adults in Noi's life seem to sense his potential, but, for some reason, he is totally unwilling to tap into it. What's impressive about the film is that it doesn't try to explain why that is, though we sense it has something to do with the stifling environment in which he lives. Noi becomes emblematic of all people who lead lives of quiet desperation, tucked away in remote, virtually uninhabitable corners of the globe, far removed from the bustle and excitement that can be found only in places with large and diverse populations.

As Noi, Tomas Lemarquis gives a beautiful, subtle performance, creating a compelling and complex character using little more than body language and facial expressions. The final moments of the film are truly heartbreaking as Noi learns the value of what he has - even though, at that point, the realization comes too late.

Written and directed by Dagur Kari with an artist's eye for lyricism and austerity, this is a bleak but intriguing little film that will stay in your mind long past the closing credits.

Metaphor Time in a Remote Icelandic Village

[lawprof · 8/10 · 21 March 2004]

[See the IMDb page for "Noi albinoni" for cast names: none are known in the U.S.]

When I first heard the title of this film a while back I wondered why a film about the composer, Albinoni, would be coming from Iceland of all places. Then I learned it's about a somewhat wayward teen living in a frigid, remote and lonesome village in Iceland.

Noi is a high school drop-in. That means he occasionally attends classes to catch up on his sleep (after being awakened by grandma with an effective but uncommon alarm). He's an albino but little is made of that, his mutation being essentially a metaphor for the opacity of his slow, largely aimless direction.

Noi lives with his grandmother but he has a not atypical buddy/adversary relationship with his taxi driver drunkard dad. About the only real emotion this kid shows is concern for his father's feelings when the polite but exasperated principal expels the teen: sending in a Panasonic tape recorder to sub for his classroom presence was the last straw for the threatened teachers.

Noi doesn't work and he basically spends his time doing very little not that there's much to do in the snowbound neighborhood. A very pretty bookseller's daughter, Iris, from the city, is visiting her dad and working in a usually empty cafe appended to a gas station. Noi pursues her with the languid inattention that seems to characterize his life.

This isn't a typical bored teen flick. Noi seems to have real promise and no motivation. The ice walls surrounding his village are a prison and he has no plans to break out other than a ludicrous failed bank robbery and a car heist to set him off on a road to nowhere. As a collection of sketches suggesting that natural boundaries have consequences for a kid with a different take on life, "Noi" is interesting.

Ultimately Noi must face a challenge dropped on him, literally, by a natural disaster. What if anything he learns from the experience is unclear. There's no neat ending to this movie.

The excellent cinematography highlights the barrenness of Noi's village. I almost sustained snow glare watching this short film.

And speaking of its shortness, I do wonder why this ninety-three minute movie had an eighty-two minute running time in France. What could there have been to cut? There's enough minimalism in the full version.

8/10

An Icy Digression Into The Frozen North

[fha-2 · 8/10 · 15 June 2004]

Take an alienated, bald, Albino teenager named Nói (Tómas Lemarquis) in the frozen fjord of northern Iceland and blend together an estranged ineffectual father while a grandmother who does not say much is raising him and the story is destined to be tragic and dark. Although Nói is well intentioned, he lacks motivation and is prone to having spells of exceptional bad luck. He is disruptive at school if he bothers to show up at all. Ultimately he is expelled and his alcoholic dad finds Nói a job working for a priest in a graveyard. As the scenario unfolds, he woos another somber and beautiful teen named Iris (Elin Hansdóttir), who works as a gas station attendant and café clerk. His relationship to Iris appears to be the only thing going well in Nói 's life; still it is just a fragile illusion.

It is winter in Iceland, such that the fjord is cut off from the outside world, while surrounded by an ominous mountain, and buried under a shroud of snow. Beautiful shots of glaciers and chilly seasides allow the tedium of this desolation to be a lot more tolerable. If you have ever been in a dead town out in the boonies somewhere, this one is even more comatose by comparison. It is hardly surprising that everyone is so somber and alienated from one another during the dark three-hour days of winter.

Please remember that this is not simply another typical bored teenager film--underneath it all Nói seems to have real promise, although his motivation is virtually non-existent. The walls of snow and ice surrounding his village give the illusion of a natural prison. Nói's desperate plans to break out fail miserably during a ludicrous failed bank robbery and an aborted car theft, further adding to his despair.

The movie directed by Dagur Kári is largely bleak and sometimes slow moving, yet it is temperamental, seductive, and distinctive. There are no cheap thrills, sexy scenes, car crashes, or violence, however the cinematography and the unfolding human drama draw you in like bees to honey and hold you there to it's amazing finish. It is not until a natural disaster so totally shatter Nói's universe that the film begins to offer the hope of a new beginning for Nói.

Nói is completely believable for anyone who ever recalls being a teenager. He is the embodiment of a disturbing reflection of the aspirations, naivety and unmanageable emotions many teens feel at that age. This film kept me enthralled and touched in equal measures right down to its startling climax. This movie is a must see for anyone who appreciates that life is different when you are just 17.

An Icelandic Tarkovski ?

[pwolfcarius · 26 October 2004]

Easily the most interesting and beautiful debut film of these last few years, with "Tan de repente" and "Verboden te zuchten" ; explicitly placed under the care of Kierkegaard ("if you hang yourself, you'll regret it, if you don't hang yourself, you'll regret it too"), Nói is as full of humour as it is desperate (with the exception of "love and getting away", Nói doesn't take anything seriously ; he's constantly playing : to avoid being sucked in by that seemingly absurd adult world which takes itself so seriously ; he dreams of escaping to Hawaii, looking at slides with a cheap viewing-box his mother just gave him for his birthday ; in this minimum world, everything is cheap...)… Frightful feelings of isolation and desolation, of being trapped on one hand ; but on the other hand, as absurdly funny (the parish-priest and Nói haggling over the depth of the tomb he has to dig in the cemetery ! and in Danish, Kierkegaard is the word for cemetery...) as it is anguishingly claustrophobic (Nói trapped, this time literally, in his secret cellar after the avalanche -- probably an allegory of his ever-increasing isolation)…

Filmed with Tarkovskian beauty (a permanent blue cast, at once gloomy, serene and unsettling ; blue maybe because it is the exaggeration, the saturation of white, the white of frost, the white of snow), it could be seen as the fateful tale (told more in images than in words) of a village "idiot" (in the Dostoievskian sense), or a "Stalker", as hemmed-in by (rather nice) people as the village is hemmed-in by (desperately beautiful) nature, doomed for absolute aloneness, into which, starting from mere difference and marginality (the "albino" bit), he will gradually "descend" (taking refuge regularly in that cellar being just another allegory of this) ; a journey to the end of the cold… tragic, but perhaps liberating… even if we can't, whatever we do, escape "fate" (the local fortune teller had rightly seen only "death and desolation" in store for Nói)… Starting rather realistically, the film gets more allegorical as it unravels (the avalanche turns out to have killed a mere 10 people : all those Nói had some contact with, and only those) ; in the last but one image, facing us, looking into his viewing-box, Nói looks like a robot, or a spaceman with his helmet on ; as for the very last image (the "real" view of one of the Hawaiian slides he used to look at : a beach of white sand, palm trees, and the gentle waves of a turquoise sea), it will probably be given as many interpretations as there will be viewers ; it proves once more that images, like words, don't have meaning(s) in themselves, but only relatively to the context into which they come inserted : here, the corniest touristic cliché becomes a thing of many meanings, an unfathomable mystery…

Like Aki Kaurismaki's "Match factory girl", in many ways a fairy tale in reverse...

I've seen this kinda movie before, but this one does stand out.

[RagingR2 · 7/10 · 6 January 2004]

You really have to like this kind of movie. The film mainly depicts the boredom and isolation that a teenager in a tiny distant village finds himself in. This will naturally result in a story where nothing really spectacular happens. This is of course necessary to depict the situation in a realistic way, but a lot of films in this genre tend to get boring themselves.

At least this film had plenty of entertainment to keep the viewer's attention. To begin with there's the magnificent imagery of the impressive Islandic landscape. But I'd mainly recommend this film because of the perfect mix of beautiful realism and tragicomedy.

All together a much more colorful result than many would expect from this kind of film and setting.

Comedy, beauty, tragedy

[alanjj · 9/10 · 12 January 2004]

Noi is a tragicomic tale of a young man who is too bright to be stuck in the dismal life he was given, but not creative enough or tenacious enough to find a way out. He refuses to play by the rules, but has not figured out anything else that he can do or be. He has minor escapes, via a ViewMaster, books, a girlfriend from the city, a gun to shoot icicles with, but they are not ultimately enough to keep him from going berserk. But the tiny Icelandic village where he lives understands him, and refuses to do something so simple as to have him locked up or sent away. Rather, they just understand, and Noi cannot get out of his dreary cold existence.

The role of Noi is played by a skinny young man who looks like he's had chemo, but he's got a beautiful expressive face, which is on-screen almost all the time. I'd love to see the guy with a head of hair. His grandmother provides great comic relief as she does her aerobics, and his dad is a vivid character down on his luck in a way that only Scandinavians can portray. He's drunk on Elvis, and that makes his life bearable.

Hope this movies gets releases--it's beautiful to look at, funny, sad, touching.

He's not really an albino – he's just different.

[RJBurke1942 · 7/10 · 4 November 2008]

Bleak, stark, white.

Those are the three adjectives that summarize this story – a minimalist narrative that centers upon one teenager – Noi (Tomas Lemarguis) - growing up somewhere in northern Iceland in the dead of winter.

First, we're introduced to Noi and his grandmother, digging out of a snowbound house after the latest blizzard. His father – a local taxi driver and sometime loser – shows up to drive him to school. At school, Noi is bored beyond belief, and quickly gets away, to go to the gas station where he meets a new employee, Iris (Elin Hansdottir), daughter the book store owner with whom Noi often plays MasterMind (and wins easily) for free girlie magazines.

You see, there's not much to do in this small town: Noi skips school whenever he can, he plays games, he wanders around the town, and for more fun he does things like getting his grandmother's shotgun to blast away at stalactites hanging off the large mountain that overlooks the town. When all else fails, he gets down into his private cubby hole under the floor of his grandmother's house, where he lives with her and his father, to think and read. Part of Noi's problems is that he's a bit of a klutz: for example, while trying to help his father with cooking, he spills a whole vat of animal blood over his dad and his grandmother. It's a comedic scene and yet there's an underlying seriousness.

Smitten by Iris at the gas station, however, Noi begins to make an impression upon her – or so he thinks – while her father, of course, warns him off. To compound his problems, the school authorities have Noi examined by a psychologist for abnormalities, seeing as how he skives off so much from school and just wants to do his own thing. But, Noi is highly intelligent, naturally, even solving the Rubik's Cube while answering the shrink's questions – well, the ones he wants to answer, anyway.

The crunch comes for Noi when the school decides that his shenanigans are just too much: he's expelled. His father tries to help by getting a job for Noi with the parish priest – digging graves! Well, that's the last straw for Noi – he grabs his grandmother's shotgun and sets off for the local bank to get enough money to take himself and Iris away from their poxy existence in such a no-nothing town. And that sets off a chain of tragic events that changes Noi's life forever.

It's a fitting end and one that is foreshadowed early in the film; but that subtle hint was not apparent to me until the denouement is reached. You may fare better.

The acting is very visual because the dialog is quite sparse; much is conveyed with a static camera simply showing whatever enters and leaves the frame. Hence, the cinematography, while being traditional – even mundane, some might say – is nevertheless effective for the whole setting. It's certainly not a movie for action fans and rev heads, however.

Recommended for all

An excellent first effort

[howard.schumann · 9/10 · 22 November 2004]

If you want to learn how to make mayonnaise while learning French, how to smoke, how to destroy a piano with an axe, how not to rob a bank, and how to survive in an environment of mind-numbing boredom, Dagur Kari's first feature Noi Albinoi may be the key. Noi is a coming-of-age comedy/drama with a morbidly deadpan sense of humor, but it is also a film that tackles a very serious subject, the physical and emotional isolation of bright teenagers growing up in an environment that does not nurture them. Set in Bolungarvik (pop. 957) in Iceland's Western Fjords, the stark quality of the remote village sheltered between the seacoast and the frozen mountains has a bluish glow that makes the world seem ominous and the relentless quiet of the secret snow conveys a tone of oppressive solitude.

This is the environment a gangling 17-year old named Noi must face each day. He is a notorious underachiever whose routine consists of avoiding school and trying please his alcoholic father Kiddi (Throstur Leo Gunnarsson). Convincingly portrayed by Icelandic actor Tomas Lemarquis, Noi is an enigma. With his shaved head, pallid complexion, and intense eyes, it is hard to know if he is an albino or a devotee of Hari Krishna. We first meet Noi in his bed as his grandmother (Anna Fridriksdóttir) tries to wake him up for school by firing a rifle over his head. Though he is considered by the school psychiatrist to be exceptionally intelligent, Noi is not fond of school and makes his teachers crazy with his lack of punctuality, sleeping in class, and general uncaring manner.

When he goes too far by placing a tape recorder on his seat to record the lecture while he goes home, his expulsion from school is the predictable result. Feeling trapped, Noi retreats to the basement of his grandmother's house where he can think about an exotic destination to escape to, made more real when his grandmother gives him a stereopticon to view pictures of a land of beaches and palm trees. His interest in life picks up when Iris (Elín Hansdóttir), a young city girl, shows up in town from Reykjavik to take a job at the local gas station. Awkward and stumbling, Noi manages to get a date but her father, a local bookseller, warns him to stay away from his daughter. On their "romantic" first date, they break into a local museum, Iris taking it on herself to break the glass on the front door while Noi attempts to jimmy the lock. They come across an exhibit showing places on a map but, as they discover, there's no button for Iceland, a rather apt metaphor.

Noi takes a job digging graves in the local cemetery where the priest hilariously attempts to use a remote control from his house to direct him where to dig a grave and the two haggle over the depth of the grave to be dug beneath tons of ice and snow. Noi's exasperation builds until he takes things into his own hand, which leads to a series of serio-comic adventures more emotionless than anything this side of Fargo. While the ending may ultimately be liberating, I was unprepared for the film's sudden dark turn. Kari, however, pulls it off and makes us care deeply about what happens to the icy town and its eccentric inhabitants. Noi Albinoi is an excellent first effort.

Life is boring, why make a movie about it?

[Boba_Fett1138 · 6/10 · 16 December 2007]

I'm fond of Scandinavian movies but I have just never been a too great fan of Icelandic movie. Yes, I know Iceland is not really Scandinavia, even though it officially is on paper. Let's say it's more of a semi-Scandinavian country. Just like in every other Scandinavian movie, this movie tries to take a realistic approach, with slow moving scenes and lots of different characters and build up involved. Only difference is that there is some more quirkiness added to it all. Most of the characters and some of the events seem definitely weird ones. In that regard Icelandic movies are somewhat similar to Danish films, that often also features quirkiness. Perhaps no coincidence, since Icelandic used to be a part of Denmark for a long time, until 1944. Now, nothing wrong with some quirkiness but if it plays a too big part in the movie it goes at the expense of the credibility and the realism of the whole movie. In my opinion this is the case with "Nói albínói".

It's obvious that the main character is living a very boring life, due to the place he is living at. But why bother us with it? We see how all of his days are always basically the same and that there is absolutely nothing for him to do. It's a good portrayal but it just isn't the most engaging or interesting one to watch as a viewer. Like I said, it's a good portrayal and definitely a well made movie, with all of the right intentions but that doesn't always make a great movie as well, when the movie doesn't have the most engaging story.

And then the ending. Sigh, well I don't know, I definitely can understand the film-makers motivations and intentions of it but it nevertheless comes rather sudden and isn't in context with the rest of the movie. It gives an already 'depressing' movie an even more depressing ending.

I'm probably sounding too harsh, since I definitely enjoyed watching "Nói albínói" but in some cases an enjoyable good watch isn't the same as a great movie.

The atmosphere is definitely good. Due to the nature conditions the movie also has a very special kind of lighting that adds to the movie its special atmosphere. It's a very cold feeling and bleak looking movie, that often uses empty long shots of the empty snowy streets and white covered small houses, with little of valuables in it.

There is nothing wrong with making a little depressive humble movie, with some much required comical undertones, that doesn't really have a story, in general movie terms, but is more a sort of an observation of life. But to devote an entire movie to the boring life of a gifted (which is mentioned but never really shown throughout the movie, except him being able to solve any kind of puzzles quickly. We only really get to see him as a lazy person who doesn't bother with anything.). Icelandic teenager is perhaps a bit too much of one thing.

The sort of movie that is still good and fun enough to watch it once, when there really is nothing else on.

6/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Well paced, an engrossing picture

[tresdodge · 9/10 · 19 April 2006]

A rebellious 17 year old student (Tomas Lemarquis) is dissatisfied with his life in a remote Icelandic town. He meets a girl (Kristmunder Kristmundersson) who works at a petrol station and together they dream of a world away from the monotony of their small town existence.

This is only the second Icelandic film I have seen and I was extremely impressed by it. The acting was very professional, the cinematography worked well in creating atmosphere and the music, which I believe was by the director's band, was very apt for the story.

The story was very simple but I feel that simple stories can often work much better than a highly complex and over indulgent pieces.

The main characters restlessness probably strikes a chord with many people who as teenagers living in a small town yearned for somewhere and something different.

A Very well made and interesting piece which I would highly recommend.

Sort of interesting, but too much in love with its own quirkiness

[Andy-296 · 6/10 · 13 April 2007]

This film from Iceland is about a 17-year old Albino called Noi (played by an actor who doesn't look either like an albino or a 17 year old) living on an oppressively dull small town in an isolated fjord. Noi, meanwhile, has problems in school, has problems with his parents, hangs out in a bookstore (the town's only, presumably) owned by a cranky old man and is in love with the beautiful waitress of the bar in the gas station. The movie itself is sort of interesting, has droll humor to spare, but at the end, seems to be too much in love with its own quirkiness. And, what should we make of the fact that (SPOILER ALERT: DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T YET SEEN THE MOVIE AND PLAN TO WATCH IT) most of the people Noi cares for die at the end as a result of an avalanche.

A fascinating, deeply touching story

[opossumd · 9/10 · 10 January 2005]

Although distant in time and space, this work is reminiscent of post-WW2 Italian neorealism, with a sprinkle of dry Nordic humour. The grandiose setting of Iceland's north-western fjord region is the real protagonist: that huge white cone-shaped mountain looms in the background, very similar to Dante's Purgatory mount, meting out penance and confining the souls living within its shadow. The actors - like in neorealistic movies - seem (but aren't) taken from the street, they look completely natural, they have jobs and behave like real people. The title character is amazingly expressive, despite his shaved head and eyebrows. With a fractional movement of the eyes and mouth he moves us to tears or laughter. The dialogues are scanty, but the continuity makes it all very clear: Noi is a child prodigy, who is tied to an inescapable, remote environment. He is at variance with his teachers, but loves - and is loved by - his disjoint family. He dreams of escaping to an entirely different world, a world of sunny beaches and palm trees, taking along the girl he is infatuated with. But deep down he knows his dream is doomed: there is no escape from his icy ghetto - almost.

Iceland Iceland

[outsideherwindow · 7/10 · 19 March 2005]

An often moving story of an Icelandic boy and his coming, or losing, of age. A lot of the goodness is novelty with the coincidental explosion of Icelandic music and general fascination in the states (sigur ros, mum, slowblow, etc), but I really do believe it's coincidental (although, I must admit, it's why I picked it up in the first place). There are some things blatantly outstanding in the film, and the acting is one. Be either emotionally open or wide awake for this movie. The soundtrack is patently slowblow, and it reflects the movie perfectly. Seeing the movie more than once gives you a feeling of how the ending happens and what it represents, firing the shotgun into the mountains mid-film represents a lot of things. Certain scenes are hilarious, but few are outrageously emotionally moving unless you make them to be, which is really not awfully difficult as the film can be seen as a white sheet of paper for your own interpretation and relation to. A very good first film, oozing with style but oozing without pretension. Happy Movies

What??

[tempsht2 · 2/10 · 5 March 2006]

I really am having a hard time understanding the people who laud this movie. Please. A coming of age story? Yes. And here the movie does succeeds. There are some of the traditional clichés of this genre evident. However, the cinematography is horrible, virtually every scene leeched of color, of any hint of hope. Some of the scenes make you laugh in spite of yourself (usually regretting it immediately after).

Perhaps for some the movie is a worthwhile view as another example of a coming of age movie. For me it is an example of promise and potential dashed to ruin (in more then one way). If you have any semblance of hope and motivation I urge you not to see this movie. It will not help you in any of these regards if you do.

A wonderful example of how to do things differently

[theradicalscholar · 1 May 2004]

Coming of age films are a common staple of Hollywood but as with many genres they merely offer variations on a theme. Noi Albinoi is a beautiful film in so many ways from the breathtaking landscape of Iceland to the often used but even more often forgotten ideal of carpe diem (sieze the day). Noi himself is completely believable for anyone who's ever been a teenager, he is an excellent reflection of the aspirations, naievaty and irrepresable emotions that everyone feels at that age. This film kept me amused and touched in equal measures all the way up to its amazing climax. A must see for everyone who understands that life's different when you're 17.

OK but nothing amazing

[towillywolf · 6/10 · 14 May 2006]

Interesting movie, done well enough. The fact that it is in Icelandic didn't really detract from it (though probably some with and humour may have been lost in translation). It was refreshing that there was no graphic violence or explicit material to detract from the movie.

However, it was very depressing... in one scene noi has a job working for the priest digging a grave. He haggles with the priest over the depth he has to dig to, getting it from 3m deep down to 2.3m deep. (not a spoiler.... the grave seen is in the trailer)

Not much really happens in the movie, watch the trailer, it contains ALL the action that was in the movie.

Worth watching if you have nothing better to do, just for the scenery and maybe to cheer you up - I'm sure your life could not possibly be as depressing as noi's!

A fine study of a disenchanted teenager

[mhb032 · 10/10 · 18 August 2006]

Not since Jerry Salinger's "Catcher In The Rye" has there been a better depiction of a totally disillusioned and out of touch teenager. Tomas Lemarquis plays Noi, a brilliant but utterly unmotivated 17 year old who has lost touch with his father, grandmother, his best friend, his schoolteachers, his minister, and eventually, his girlfriend. Dagur Kari has directed a masterpiece. The Icelandic scenery, so desolate and austere,only adds to the complete frustration, since Noi feels everyone he knows is conspiring against him. We've seen lots of US, French and British made films about sullen and rebellious teenagers, but this one is easily the most realistic of all of them. I won't discuss how it ends...but be prepared.

Not particularly original, but well-made and filled with dark humour and some wonderful images

[mcnally · 7/10 · 6 September 2003]

I saw this film at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival.

Nói is an oddity in a land of oddities. He's bright, but never in school, and his tiny remote town is boring him to death. All his attempts to escape seem to fail, and then a cruel twist of fate leaves him even more isolated than before.

Clearly a bit autobiographical, this first feature contained some clever '80s kitsch (Rubik's Cube, MasterMind, ViewMaster) from the director's own teen years. Though not particularly original, the film was well-made and filled with dark humour and some wonderful images (and not just of the "beautiful Iceland" variety, though it had those, too.) Nói shooting at huge icicles with a shotgun, and later, digging a grave in a snowstorm, were particularly arresting. I'd like to see what Dagur Kári will do next.

(7.5/10)

a unique depict of isolation and freedom

[vampirock_x · 10/10 · 5 April 2007]

The first time I watched this film was two years ago, when I was still stuck in the disagreeable, privacy-losing university life. I read every travel magazine I could get. I threw myself into some faraway lands and leave the body in torture.

That's when this film came to me.

It's not the first film about isolation and freedom struggle, but this one is from Iceland, a country long adored by me for three things: snow, distance and music. With its beautiful scenes, sparse guitar playing in the background and loosely haunting performance by all the actors, this one is different. It's unique and more powerful, with magic to drown you inside its world.

One cannot imagine how isolated a youth can be when there are no other peers to understand him. Nói was a genius in term of his over-sensitive insight to the surroundings. He saw what others didn't see, and he felt differently. **(spoiler) The girl's appearance was once crucial for his only hope to get out of here, but finally it turned out to have only slowed down his road to destruction. What made the film so different is that at last it's the world coming to destruction while he happened to live and thus was given a new life.** Is it necessary that the problem of the incompatibility between oneself and the world has to be solved by either side being destroyed --- either the essentiality of the former or the form of the latter. I don't think the filmmakers were kind enough to give us an ending like that. It's not positive at all. It's merely fate that controls everything and we have to bow down before it.

**(spoiler) Sitting on the remains after the avalanche, Nói once again looked into those tropical landscape flicker.** Was he at last aware of his connection with the surroundings? Did he feel regretful or simply free? Was he finally determined to leave? The ending didn't reveal much, but suggested a lot.

It doesn't necessarily take a disease like Albino for so many kids nowadays to feel like Nói. It happens everywhere, but this film gives us a perfect universal and essential depict of it.

I'm lucky enough to have overcome that period, although still feeling isolated from time to time. Those who haven't should take some comforts from this film; those who have may as well have a nostalgic retrospection.

the kids all white

[simonrosenbaum · 7/10 · 25 October 2003]

A fine first feature from director Dagur Kari. He also wrote the screenplay which came from ideas he's had since he was seventeen. He says he learnt film-making from watching the Simpsons and maybe that come's across in some of the more surprise elements of the film and in the oddball humour which nicely counterbalances the mundane existance of living in a dreary small town in the middle of nowhere. There's some lovely performances from the cast playing the town's inhabitants and especially from Noi's grandmother. My only gripe is that the film's measured pace was starting to get to me by the end. A film that appears laidback but which has a volatile underbelly just below the surface much like Noi himself does. (7/10)

A beautiful tale of isolation, rebellion and escape.

[Sergeant_Tibbs · 10/10 · 21 December 2008]

I would happily claim Nói albínói to being the most visually perfect film I have ever seen, even with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Barry Lyndon, Paris Texas, Werckmeister Harmonies, etc in mind. It features delicate hues of green, blue and red that capture every defining detail that merge together within the frame with Nói's pale white skin blending in with them - showing how trapped he feels despite being unique. Also the Icelandic landscapes had me in a state of absolute awe, at once being cold and warm. Pure magic. Nói (played enigmatically by Tómas Lemarquis) is a very arrogant and ignorant youth who just doesn't want to think or know. He does, however, obtain complex physical tasks like hacking into a gambling machine and changing it so he wins or breaking into cars and buildings - clearly showing his lack of morals, although that isn't surprising with a drunk father figure, evidently senile grandmother and no apparent mother. He never looks to the consequences or even distant future (he claims he wants to be a lawyer which is taken as a joke). He seeks no guidance or assurance and takes what he wants when he wants. There is a beautiful and calming side to him, as he lets a fly crawl up and down his hands, which would otherwise be irritating. The film itself opens with symbolism which pretty much sums him up straight away where we see Nói's house being snowed in and we see him having to work hard to get out; although we never do see if he does and are left to assume the film is told in sequence. The love interest, Íris, is a naive new arrival the sleepy, limited town, who initially does not seek any attention from Nói but then takes what he gives; in the end we discover it is a case when the man likes the woman more than she does which is woefully saddening. She is also the daughter of Nói's good friend which adds a touch of recklessness to his character. The score is a subtle and pleasant addition which reflects how Nói feels, whether near Íris, in his isolated hideaway or in danger. Dagur Kári seizes all these moments with secure confidence amplifying the emotions provoked. A lot of humour as well like when Nói attempts to rob a bank then after being casually kicked out he returns to make a withdrawal. All the characters are well developed and recognizable in their roles in the film. It was the ending that truly made me realize how much I cared, I cried when I thought something inevitable was about to happen and then I cried again when the exact opposite happened. It is so blunt and powerful that I just could not help myself. This film is heading straight to my top 10 of all-time.

10/10

"You will be surrounded by death"

[swillsqueal · 7/10 · 7 August 2007]

Noi is an intelligent 17-year old, living today's Icelandic rural life. Noi is a very white lad, looking much like a lead singer in some band called "Midnight Oil". Completing the white-death symbolism which permeates this film, Noi is an albino surrounded by icy, white, snowy landscapes.

Noi can solve the Rubric Cube in a matter of a couple of minutes and defeat a skilled opponent at "Mastermind" within seconds. However, most people who know Noi don't appreciate his innate intelligence nor his very well hidden libido. That's because they've pretty much accepted their tamped-down rural lives. Most people around Noi are dead-like, passionless and joyless, but don't know it. Noi knows. He knows a lot of things; but he's not ready to let anyone else in on his secrets. Besides, it's hard communicating with the living-dead. He's keeping his libidinous urges to himself, hiding away, waiting for the right moment.

Living in a semi-morgue can be cold and cold you are, watching "Noi The Albino". Noi's grandmother moves with a sense of deliberate Spockian purpose, expressionless and ever so slowly. His teacher teaches with a dispassion, resembling a 12th Century Gregorian chant, droned within a drafty, stone church. And his father is like a zombified Jim Backus, resigned to remembering the sparks of lives past, with his own karaoke recordings of Elvis songs populating his taxi's glovebox--graveyards of a ghetto-life gone by.

Noi is 'California dreaming',like kids his age did back in the 60s. He wants out of this winter of constant discontent, this daily life of quiet, hallroom tick-tocks, passing time over things, like jigsaw puzzles, waiting, waiting for snowy, stone cold death. Noi dreams escape to the warmth of an Hawaiian life. In the meantime, he'll drop out--rebel style, without a cause, so to speak--except for himself. Noi's alone, an isolated individual rebel or so he thinks, until he meets the new girl in town, Iris. Iris is from the city. Noi tests her with a dare or two and stirs an ember of adventure. You can see it in her face. They stimulate each other's imagination within the snowy, white within the deathly, cold Icelandic winter. The cold drives them to find each other most appropriately, in the local museum, a house of dead things. But,daydreaming is as far as Iris will go with Noi and when Noi steals a car urging Iris to become his partner in crime, to make the small town prison break of their lives, Iris remains behind with cold feet and like the others surrounding Noi, she stares her farewell with cold, cold eyes of resignation. Noi's emotional, romantic rebellion ends in its usual impotent rage.

Noi's job as a gravedigger and his special hideout, a hole below the floors of his grandma's house, all point to one direction for this lad. As he is told by the town tea leaf reader, "You will be surrounded by death."

The Righteous Snowman

[cosmicdrip · 8/10 · 14 November 2005]

If one were to pigeonhole this film you could put it in the category of quirky loner movies in which the protagonist befriends an equally lonely female character (ex: Buffalo 66, Napoleon Dynamite, Punch Drunk Love). Different shades of the same core character in a recognizable yet foreign setting, however that aside these films have nothing else that obvious in common.

I ORIGINALLY thought the movie had interesting moments but was mainly… drab. However, since I watched it the other night I have not stopped thinking about it which I think for a filmmaker is the greatest compliment of all. The main character Nói is played by someone whom at all times exudes an aura of mellow assurance (not like the Fonz) which would seem rare for the situations this 17 year old encounters but at the same time he makes it believable. The Director/Auter Kári makes a valiant effort by writing the screenplay and making an unalloyed soundtrack of his bands music which ebbs nicely with the desolation and not opting for a Sigur Rós opus (note the polarity of Noi listening to ska and black metal in the taxi). I've also made some biblical assumptions as far as content is concerned since a member on here made it known that Nói means Noah in Icelandic.

The video quality caught me off guard at first, giving the impression of a university student at the helm but after several minutes the effect is interesting and even promotes the mood of the film, especially at night(ex: low angle of Iris outside the museum). There are also moments of sparse dialogues throughout which lend a viewer to dwell and dwell on meaning afterwards.

I would advise viewers prior to engagement to slow down any Michael Bay metabolism you might have to give this film an honest chance. This film is rife with awards and because it's independent one may get that Pulp Fiction/Trainspotting itch before hand which would be a GIANT mistake.

Very worthwhile film which could have been much better

[sc8031 · 6/10 · 23 July 2008]

It's hard for me to review this one. It is a successful film considering it is the director's first movie (and the lead actor's second). I really wanted to rate it higher, but I don't want to give a false impression. It is an entertaining and touching film but some of the story elements are predictable and have been seen many times before. This film stands out for it's clever Nordic humor, the Icelandic locale and a creative twist at the end.

The plot is about an albino high-school boy called Noi who lives in a remote Icelandic village and dreams of running away. His family life is depressing, he is lazy and often skips school, but in his own way he is rather clever and smart. We get a good sense of Noi's restless day-to-day activities and the unchanging backdrop and predictable locals makes the film feel like a real-life version of the Bill Murray vehicle, "Groundhog's Day".

The music is minimalist; anyone who has listened to Mum or Sigur Ros or early Bjork would not be particularly surprised (or displeased) by what is used here. I was expecting this, but the music works -- sufficiently melancholy and sparingly used. I am always a little miffed when movies use music to accentuate the exciting moments, as though the moments cannot speak for themselves. This happens once or twice where I thought it was not quite necessary. But all in all, the music is appropriate I think.

Some of the romance elements or moments of yearning for life beyond Iceland I found a little too predictable. And then the scene with the psychologist...blech! (A rubik's cube?!) I mean, this stuff has just been done before, more smoothly, in other movies. As I said previously, the fact that it is the director's first film and the fact that we rarely see such a film from Iceland means it still works, but it would've been nice to see more original thematic twists to the characters. Then again, the main characters are in high school and everyone in high school is predictable and cliché, a haha!

Like I said, I really wanted to rate this a 7. But I don't think it's quite as good as it could have been. But! you shouldn't overlook this one. It's not a fast-paced film -- at times it reminded me of the foreign films "Mongolian Ping-pong", "Yellow Earth" and "Kikujiro" in its pacing and bittersweet sentiments. It could've been a bit longer, exploring Noi's romantic feelings or his talents a bit more. Building our attachment to the characters would have made the film a bit stronger overall. Still, it has several humorous moments and memorable characters.

Definitely worthwhile for those interested in Nordic films/culture or tasteful, lower-budget, independent projects.

"Life in the Freezer"

[Camera-Obscura · 13 December 2006]

NOI THE ALBINO (Dagur Kári - Iceland/Denmark/Germany/UK 2003).

This is Icelandic director Dagur Kári's debut film about seventeen-year-old Nói (Tómas Lemarquis) who lives with his grandmother in a small village on a remote fjord in the north of Iceland. In winter, the fjord is cut off from the outside world, surrounded by ominous mountains and buried under a shroud of snow. If he feels like it, or when his grandmother wakes him up by firing a rifle through the window next to his bed, he attends school. But most of the time he aimlessly drifts around, dreaming of escaping this white-walled prison with Iris, a city girl who works in a local gas station. But his clumsy attempts at escape, like robbing a bank, spiral out of control and most of his attempts to get out end in dismal failure.

I feel very lucky for not living in the god-forsaken place Nói has to spend his days. We're never quite sure how to understand this seventeen year-old boy. Director Dagur Kári consciously poses the question: Is he the village idiot or a genius in disguise? When a psychologist drops by to assess the boy's problems at school, he claims the boy is a genius. But in real life, his behavior ranges from the socially handicapped to plain idiocy. Tómas Lemarquis is impressive with a restrained performance, mostly reliant on facial expressions or body language.

I saw Dagur Kári's recent film DARK HORSE (2005) before this one, and enjoyed it much more, but that's not to say either one of them is better than the other. "Dark Horse" is much lighter and optimistic in tone, but lacks a really believable central character, while "Nói Albinoi" has a better story with a more fulfilling resolution, plus the (for me at least) quite unique Icelandic setting complete with the strange isolation and the icy-blue cinematography. A wonderful if somewhat distancing experience. The ending is shattering.

Camera Obscura --- 8/10