Noi the Albino (2003)

Is he the village idiot or a genius in disguise? 17 year old Noi drifts through life on a remote fjord in the north of Iceland. In winter, the fjord is cut off from the outside world, ... See full summary »

Director:

Dagur Kári

Writer:

Dagur Kári

Stars:

Tómas Lemarquis, Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson, Elín Hansdóttir

20 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tómas Lemarquis	...	Nói
Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson	...	Kiddi Beikon
Elín Hansdóttir	...	Íris
Anna Friðriksdóttir	...	Lína
Hjalti Rögnvaldsson	...	Óskar
Pétur Einarsson	...	Prestur
Kjartan Bjargmundsson	...	Gylfi
Þorsteinn Gunnarsson	...	Þórarinn Skólastjóri
Guðmundur Ólafsson	...	Alfreð Kennari
Haraldur Jónsson	...	Teitur Sálfræðingur
Gérard Lemarquis	...	Frönskukennari
Greipur Gíslason	...	Dabbi
Páll Loftsson	...	Pabbi Dabba / Bankastjóri
Ásdís Thoroddsen	...	Bankastarfsmaður
Ásmundur Ásmudsson	...	Barþjónn

Storyline

Is he the village idiot or a genius in disguise? 17 year old Noi drifts through life on a remote fjord in the north of Iceland. In winter, the fjord is cut off from the outside world, surrounded by ominous mountains and buried under a shroud of snow. Noi dreams of escaping from this white-walled prison with Iris, a city girl who works in a local gas station. But his clumsy attempts at escape spiral out of control and end in complete failure. Only a natural disaster will shatter Noi's universe and offer him a window into a better world.

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Plot Keywords:

fjord | winter | village | snow | natural disaster | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for language and brief nudity

Did You Know?

Trivia

Palm trees are repeatedly present in the movie as a symbol: on the Viewmaster slide, on Noi's father's shirt, on the cake her grandmother bakes and on the green wallpaper at his house.

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Goofs

In the scene where the psychiatrist examines Nói, the former behaves strangely negligent. No health care professional would administrate an intelligence test by giving the subject scarce instructions, since these are part of a standardized protocol. Instead, he would give detailed instructions asking the subject if he has understood them and should be present during, at least, a portion of the test.

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Quotes

Frönskukennari: Bonjour. Today I'II teach you how to make real mayonnaise.

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Connections

Features Jing wu ying xiong (1994)

User Reviews

haunting tale of a bored adolescent

In the spare and poetic "Noi the Albino," the title character is a seventeen-year-old gifted underachiever who lives with his grandmother in a dreary little village on the coast of northern Iceland. This would be a harsh, isolated environment for anyone to grow up in, but it is particularly trying for a misfit adolescent with few social skills and no real hope for the future. Noi, whose generally aloof, alcoholic father lives on his own in a different part of town, spends most of his time trudging purposelessly through the snowy streets of the village or holing up in the basement room he's carved out for himself as a kind of sanctuary from a world too utterly depressing to contemplate. Bored by school and bereft of friends, this young man drifts through life, dreaming of the day when he will be able to live on a very different kind of island in the South Seas, a location light years removed from this place where the interiors are every bit as stark and forbidding as the white-on-white world outside.

"Noi the Albino" is one of those films in which the very lack of anything significant happening becomes the central theme and message of the work. Noi lives a life that is so uneventful and boring that it would drive virtually any one of us to the brink of madness. We hardly blame him when we see him dozing through his classes at school or pilfering change from a mock slot machine set up in the local restaurant. Yet, despite the fact that virtually nothing of consequence happens, the film itself is a fascinating mood piece that seeps into our bones and makes us sympathize with the plight of the strange young man who occupies center stage in the drama. Most of the adults in Noi's life seem to sense his potential, but, for some reason, he is totally unwilling to tap into it. What's impressive about the film is that it doesn't try to explain why that is, though we sense it has something to do with the stifling environment in which he lives. Noi becomes emblematic of all people who lead lives of quiet desperation, tucked away in remote, virtually uninhabitable corners of the globe, far removed from the bustle and excitement that can be found only in places with large and diverse populations.

As Noi, Tomas Lemarquis gives a beautiful, subtle performance, creating a compelling and complex character using little more than body language and facial expressions. The final moments of the film are truly heartbreaking as Noi learns the value of what he has - even though, at that point, the realization comes too late.

Written and directed by Dagur Kari with an artist's eye for lyricism and austerity, this is a bleak but intriguing little film that will stay in your mind long past the closing credits.

Details

Country:

Iceland Germany UK Denmark

Language:

Icelandic French

Release Date:

28 February 2003 (Iceland)

Also Known As:

Nói

Filming Locations:

Bolungarvík, Iceland

Box Office

Budget:

EUR1,100,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,808, 21 March 2004

Gross USA:

$60,555

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,342,010

Company Credits

Production Co:

Zik Zak Kvikmyndir, Essential Filmproduktion GmbH, The Bureau

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1