King’s Road

Colour, DIGIBETA
Iceland, 2010, 93 min
Section: Variety’s Ten Euro Directors to Watch

Synopsis

In this agreeably quirky sophomore feature from Valdís Óskarsdóttir, 30-something Junior has returned to Iceland from Germany after several years, with a mysterious German acquaintance in tow. Junior hopes his dad, Senior, might help him out financially, though the new villa of the former multimillionaire and full-time embezzler turns out to be a tiny mobile home in a trailer park at the end of the eponymous road. Senior’s new wife, a former beauty queen, and Junior’s grandmother, who keeps a stuffed seal as a low-maintenance pet, complete the crackpot family picture. However, they hardly qualify as the weirdest inhabitants of this Nowheresville trailer park, which is overseen by oft-furious, always-uptight janitor BB. The montage maestro of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind offers further evidence that she’s a name to watch.

About the director

Valdís Óskarsdóttir (b. 1950, Akureyri, Iceland) started her career as a photographer for weekly magazines and newspapers. She also wrote short stories, tales for children, radio plays and TV programs, supplementing her meager earnings with stints as a fish factory worker, waitress, teacher and fishing boat cook. After building an award-winning resume as editor of international films including Festen, Julien Donkey Boy, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Mongol, Óskarsdóttir helmed her first feature, dysfunctional family comedy Country Wedding, in 2008. Her quirky sophomore outing King’s Road (2010) nimbly juggles the intersecting stories of a trailer park’s oddball denizens.