I’m a sucker for Icelandic movies… but this one stood on its own as a “good movie that happened to be Icelandic”. It had a small town feel that is quintessentially Icelandic – where you get the sense that everyone is part of a large extended family.

The movie is a little-known true story about the improbable survival of a fisherman, who has to swim many miles to shore in ice-cold waters after his boat sinks. Most people succumb to the cold after 20 minutes, but somehow he survives.

Perhaps the best part of this movie was the way it didn’t overdramatize the story – it just told the story. The hero wasn’t some kind of super-human, just really lucky by a quirk of genetics. And perhaps best of all, the events of the story don’t really change his essence. In his darkest moments, he makes a deal with God that if he survives, he’ll finally go talk to that girl he likes. But, he never follows through. Why? Because his character was simply like that. That made the movie true to me.