Swiss Army Mommy: a darkly comedic road movie about belated adulthood. Grand Prix of the 2022 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
In his first feature film in 13 years, director Hilmar Oddsson puts an Icelandic sweater on classic “corpse-comedy” films like “Weekend at Bernie’s” and “Swiss Army Man”. Jon, a grumpy and downtrodden middle-aged man, lives with his elderly, overbearing mother on a farm in the most remote and isolated province of Iceland. They knit traditional sweaters for a living, and the tightly woven wool threads from their balls are a graceful visual metaphor for their lives. Their only entertainment is listening to radio broadcasts recorded on cassettes, which a merchant ship brings along with provisions every few weeks. When mommy suddenly dies, Jon, fulfilling the wish specified in the will, takes her across the country to bury her in her native village of Eyrarbakki. After placing his mother's painted and dressed-up corpse in the back seat of the car and taking his beloved dog with him, the man sets off on a literal and existential journey, encountering freaky locals, a lost love of his life, a Greek choir, and his own insecurities along the way. And the fact that Jon's mother is now dead does not prevent her from controlling her son.
Original language: Icelandic, French Subtitles: Belarusian | English