Camera Work vs. Story

Metalhead

Drama with comedic elements

Blades of grass waving in the wind, just like in a Western. Laundry hanging on the line, making think of “Calvary”. Opening images, that could lead in various directions. Which one just shocks few seconds later.

“Málmhaus” or “Metalhead” already was aired at e.g. the Summer Breeze Open Air and is available as video on demand. The tremendous soundtrack to this movie was composed by Petur Ben. Apart from the music, this Icelandic film about the a girl growing up at the countryside scores with a lot of details in production.

It starts with the dramatic death of Hera’s brother. When sitting in the church at his funeral, director Ragnar Bragason uses the Kuleshov effect, showing why Hera then has to leave. In general, not many words are used, what makes the vibe more oppressive. From the event of her brother’s dying, the story starts to escalate slowly.

Like Ozzy did in real life, she works some time at a slaughterhouse, until she gets fired. All of the expectations and encounters lead her to the arson at the local church. Inspired she got by the actions in Norway, as described in “Lords Of Chaos”. Apart from this reference, there are a lot of fun Metal references. For example do the three tough guys from the label sit like school boys at Hera’s parents table. Also there is this special view by Metalheads recognizing each other because of shirts and often not saying anything. The boy Hera meets greets with the horns.

If it is really necessary to lead the whole story to this overdone happy end is bit questionable. But at the same time the pictured coherence is nice to see. Even if you are not into Metal music, this is a beautiful Coming-of-age movie full of atmosphere. It is wonderfully photographed and narrated. And after all it is not that much about the music and if, it is still funny when Hera suddenly sits at the table with corpse paint on.