Under the Tree

    Under the Tree
    2017

    Synopsis

    When Baldvin and Inga's next door neighbours complain that a tree in their backyard casts a shadow over their sundeck, what starts off as a typical spat between neighbours in the suburbs unexpectedly and violently spirals out of control.

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    Cast

    • Steinþór Hróar SteinþórssonAtli
    • Edda BjörgvinsdóttirInga
    • Sigurður SigurjónssonBaldvin
    • Þorsteinn BachmannKonrad
    • Selma BjörnsdóttirEybjorg
    • Lára Jóhanna JónsdóttirAgnes
    • Dóra JóhannsdóttirRakel
    • Sigrídur Sigurpálsdóttir SchevingAsa

    Recommendations

    • 90

      The New York Times

      Maintaining an unrelentingly gleeful grip on the film’s tone, Mr. Sigurdsson skillfully whips absurdist comedy and chilling tragedy into a froth of surging hostilities.
    • 88

      The Seattle Times

      Darkly comic and submerged in irony, events unfold with the inevitability of a slow-motion car wreck. When the emotional and physical carnage finally recedes, Sigurðsson leaves us with one haunting image that proves the universe has a sick sense of humor indeed.
    • 83

      The Film Stage

      You’ll find yourselves laughing and hating yourself for doing so because Sigurðsson doesn’t play scenes for comedy despite very obviously writing for it. This is a testament to his direction and the actors’ heightened states of borderline farce played with complete sincerity.
    • 80

      The Hollywood Reporter

      The film’s near-perfect calibration between family drama and black comedy recalls the director’s earlier features, Paris of the North and Either Way (remade in the U.S. as Prince Avalanche), but this is the one in which Sigurdsson really projects a distinctive voice.
    • 80

      Screen Daily

      Unsettlingly perceptive as well as absurdly comedic, Under the Tree chronicles domestic tensions left to fester; when grudges branch out like a leafy tree in a suburban backyard, everyone suffers.
    • 80

      Variety

      It has the escalating, claustrophobic structure of the darkest farce, but humor doesn’t pile up in Under the Tree so much as it bleeds out.
    • 80

      Village Voice

      The first scenes are hilarious, all sharp surprises and adeptly staged physical comedy. But then the story turns, the way that milk does, curdling into tragedy.
    • 75

      Movie Nation

      It’s jarring and stereotype-smashing, for starters, and just plain disturbing on top of that.

    Seen by

    • Hella