The Garden

A welfare recipient fights for her son's love – and for the state payments she illegally collects for him. A quirky family farce from Iceland.

Synopsis

There's a magnificent laburnum tree growing in the tiny garden of the satellite-town apartment in which the welfare recipient Indíana lives. But local officials tell her she has to remove the tree because it is of foreign origin! Indíana is already in a long-running dispute with her immigrant neighbours, and now her son, Jonas, brings home his Polish girlfriend. Does the boy want to go his own way? That would be disastrous for Indíana, because she registered him as mentally disabled, and she lives on the support she collects for him. But together with the nurse Daniella, he even proves himself a lifesaver. To drive a wedge between him and her rival, Indíana is willing to use any means available ... Director Ragnar Bragason indicts his fellow countrymen for xenophobia in this whimsical family farce, but he also knows how to entertain.

Nordic Film Days Talks: Click here for a director's voice of Ragnar Bragason, the director of "The Garden".
Nordic Film Days Talks: Click here for an interview with Ragnar Bragason, the director of "The Garden".

note team

Director: Ragnar Bragason
Writer: Ragnar Bragason
Camera: Árni Filippusson
Cast: Sigrún Edda Björnsdóttir (Indíana), Hallgrímur Ólafsson (Unnar), Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir (Jóhanna), Karolina Gruszka (Daniela)

Production: Davíð Óskar Ólafsson, Mystery Island
Festival contact: Icelandic Film Centre