Rendez-vous à Kiruna (2013)
Directed by Anne Novion

Film Review

Anne Novion's second film feels like a darker, more introspective near cousin of her first, Les Grandes personnes (2008).  The film concludes where its predecessor began, in the moodily picturesque hinterlands of Sweden, and sees Jean-Pierre Darroussin once again cast as an authoritarian father figure who has difficulty engaging emotionally with others.  However, whilst the themes and the setting are similar, the narrative trajectory and cinematic style are markedly different.  Here, Novion crafts what can only be described as a Bergmanesque road movie, in which two very different characters - a grumpy French architect and a mixed up young Suede - are thrown together and establish a rapport which allows each of them to negotiate a profound inner change.  Darroussin's co-star is Anastasios Soulis, the charismatic young Swedish actor who made such an impact in Novion's first film.

In Les Grandes personnes, Novion explored, with great delicacy and truthfulness, the painful process of separation that any father must experience when his teenage daughter makes the transition to adulthood and prepares to fly the coop.  Rendez-vous à Kiruna feels like an inversion of this, in which a father finds he must establish some kind of bond with the son he never knew.  The hitchhiker Magnus whom the main character Ernest invites to accompany him on his long journey serves as a surrogate for the son who is now dead.  By developing a relationship with Magnus, Ernest is finally able to emerge from his autistic shell and find meaning in what has hitherto been a selfish and pretty soulless existence.  Likewise, Magnus sees in Ernest the father he has lacked and through him manages to move on from his present emotional crisis.  The film's premise is hardly original, but Novion's deft handling of it, together with the authentic performances from the exceptional lead actors, gives it a satisfying freshness and immediacy.

The emotional journey that the two protagonists undertake in the course of the film is skilfully wedded to their geographical journey, which passes through some of the most achingly beautiful regions of Scandinavia.  In deciding on the look of the film, Novion claims she was inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper, and there is certainly a wistfulness to the stark, brooding visuals, a sense that these represent a much deeper meaning than is first apparent.  In one memorable scene, Darroussin has a close encounter with an elk - a comical, almost surreal digression that is symbolic of his character's alienation from the world around him, and mankind in particular.  When the protagonists reach their final destination, in the northern extremity of Sweden (reputed to be one of the gloomiest places on Earth), they are visibly altered, reborn into a sunnier world.  It is perhaps too soon to claim Anne Novion as the heir to Ingmar Bergman, but she is proving to be a competent and devoted disciple of his, if this enchanting film is anything to go by.

Film Synopsis

Ernest, a renowned architect, lives only for his work.  One day, he receives a call from the Swedish police who ask him to undertake a long journey to Kiruna in Lapland.  There, he must identify the body of a complete stranger, the son he has never known.   On his way, he meets Magnus, a vulnerable and lost young man who has nothing in common with the authoritarian and mistrustful architect.   Through the journey, Ernest will discover a part of himself that will help him to understand the purpose of his visit to Kiruna...