I remember you (4 Stars)

This is the 49th film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

This is a beautifully eerie ghost story, set in an abandoned town in the north west of Iceland. The film set didn't have to be built, it was already available. The director was able to find a town that's been abandoned for 70 years, just as eerie as the film itself. There's no electricity, no Internet and no telephone reception, so the cast and crew were cut off from the world while they were filming. That's a big sacrifice to make.

The film is made up of two stories which are shown in parallel. The first takes place in the abandoned town by the sea fifteen years ago. The second takes place in the present in a small town somewhere in the middle of Iceland. (The places aren't named in the film, but I'd love to find out where they are). In the present day story a doctor is sent to help with the post-mortem investigation of a woman who has hanged herself in a church. The doctor is still suffering from the loss of his eight-year-old son who mysteriously vanished at a petrol station. A schizophrenic patient of the doctor speaks about his son being together with Bernodus, a boy who disappeared in the abandoned town while it was still populated.

And there are ghosts.

The atmosphere of this film is perfectly balanced. It's scary without being grotesque. It's probably the best European ghost film I've ever seen.