It has become very apparent that many of the residents of Iceland and those of Icelandic culture are deep believers of spirituality, the metaphysical and the supernatural world. Films like, Cold Fever, Noi the Albino, and Investigation Into the Invisible World are clear portrayals of the beliefs of many Icelanders in the director’s depictions of the spiritual world, deeply ingrained into the themes of each of the films. Although it may not always be practical, many of these beliefs are respected and explored through out the presentation of the films. The audience is pushed deeper into the minds, thought processes and beliefs of the Icelandic people. The icy cold landscapes add to the nature ...view middle of the document...
Taken even further off course, Hirata decides to make his journey quicker and buys an ancient car from a very cryptic woman who claims that her car is good luck. Oddly enough, the car only connects to one radio station. Hirata continues to meet a local resident with a very strange hobby: photographing and collecting pictures of funerals. Later, he picks up two American hitchhikers, who are constantly quarrelling. Things go south when Hirata watches them rob a mini-mart and is placed at gunpoint to drive the hitchhikers to their destination—also not on the way to Reykjavik. In the freezing weather, he is forced to walk to the closest village where Hirata befriends a cowboy named Siggi. Siggi teaches Hirata how to drink the strongest cocktail in Iceland, called “Black Death.” They drunkenly celebrate something unknown to Hirata, in a secluded farmhouse, where they revel by eating sheep testicles and playing odd, golden instruments. Siggi and Hirata travel on horseback through the snow toward Reykjavik, and about halfway through Hirata decides he must culminate the pilgrimage on his own. Hirata struggles to cross an unsteady bridge, which is a major symbolic moment in the film. He arrives at the river, where he finally performs the ceremony for his parent’s souls to rest in peace.
Many of the mystical, spiritual occurrences offer no explanation in Cold Fever, which imply that they are merely normative behaviors of Icelandic culture. The film is very humorous, but beneath the surface there is beauty in Hirata’s journey with a constant symbolic undertone. This film portrays the Japanese-Icelandic culture clash and how ill-prepared Hirata initially was for this frosty, sojourn in a country and where caricature is high among people believe ghosts have saved them from fatal situations. The film suggests that impending death shouldn’t terrify you; it’s a natural incidence of life and we should take comfort in the fact that that is the common variable among every single person. Hirata entered a new territory geographically and spiritually, which I think makes up for the fact that he missed his vacation to Hawaii.
Dagur Kari’s Noi the Albino presents instances in the film that contain spiritual phenomena through the protagonist, misfit, lonesome, 17-year-old Noi. Noi’s appearance is the first thing that differentiates him from his small town in Iceland. He is extremely and strangely pale and has no visible hair on his head...
