THE JUNIPER TREE (1990) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Nietzchka Keene
Björk Gudmundsdóttir, Bryndis Petra Bragadóttir,
Valdimar Örn Flygenring, Gudrún Gisladóttir
An Icelandic movie set in some long-ago century, about two sisters who leave the place where their mother's been burned as a witch and move in with a widowed farmer and his young son. The older sister marries the farmer, but the boy hates her and wants her gone, while the younger sister, who has a mystical connection with nature, starts to have visions of their dead mother. It's stark and spare and very Nordic, shot in black and white and based on a fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm. Curiously, for a movie that looks and feels so distinctly Scandinavian, it's in English and the director's an American. Ms. Gudmundsóttir plays the ingenuous younger sister, her first appearance in a theatrical film.
