27/01/2025 - Swann Arlaud and Woody Norman dazzle in Vladimir de Fontenay’s new movie, a high-calibre and incisive survival film which is as brutally physical as it is subtly psychological

"No cars, no phones, no people, no road. An island all to ourselves." It’s into the throes of a "great adventure" revolving around a father-son relationship in the isolated wilds of nature that French-American filmmaker Vladimir de Fontenay (discovered in the 2017 Directors’ Fortnight via Mobile Homes [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) has plunged, with his incredibly hard-hitting movie Sukkwan Island, unveiled in the Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

The romantic dream of being immersed in a land unsullied by humans has been the inspiration of countless films, ranging from John Boorman’s Deliverance (1972) and Sean Penn’s Into the Wild (2007) to Matt Ross’s Captain Fantastic (2016), to name but a few examples, and we know that things rarely go as planned in these utopias, and that as soon as it’s a question of survival, drama almost inevitably lurks in the background. And Sukkwan Island makes no secret of this, with its highly suggestive prologue (an arrival by boat amidst ice-cold temperatures, silent hours spent driving, day and night, on snowy roads, the mention of a funeral held ten years earlier) and its focus on Roy (Ruaridh Mollica), a young man who has come to look at a chalet before it’s destroyed. A long flashback ensues, involving the two protagonists of this story - teenager Roy (Woody Norman) and his father Tom (Swann Arlaud) - which has been adapted by the director from American writer David Vann’s eponymous novel, Legend of a Suicide. Because, beneath the surface of this highly physical film (involving wood-cutting so as not to die from the cold, fishing, rifle shooting, stumbling through the snow, injuries, worries about bears, etc.) reminiscent of modern westerns, it’s the father-son relationship buffeted between love and crucifixion which is the real subject of this film.

"I’ve left everything behind, I’ve convinced your mum, I’ve bought this house for us". Having separated from his wife when Roy was a baby, Tom has decided to reconnect with his son by spending a year together on Sukkwan Island. Thus, we see our father-son duo dropped off by a small plane and settling themselves in an austere chalet ("go straight through the woods then turn left at the lake"). The surrounding landscape is sublime, the isolation exhilarating ("our own rules, we can do what we want"), with only a radio to connect them to the outside world, and the changing light complete with midnight sun and aurora borealis. But Roy soon detects strange red flags in his father’s behaviour ("I don’t feel at home anywhere, but being here with you is going to make everything better"). And when winter arrives, practical complications accumulate, communication becomes strained, and the atmosphere darkens…

Told from the viewpoint of the son, the story comes together very effectively, like a puzzle, gradually unveiling Tom’s past and his search for a lost Eden, as if an Ahab hunting down his Moby Dick. This Gordian knot feeds into the unfurling of this clever narrative (surprises are to be expected), which is dotted with ferocious ups and downs unfolding within a dazzling visual environment where the elements (blizzard, ice, lake water, rain, snow) all pose their own individual challenges. Add to the mix two brilliant main actors and an excellent Amine Berrada heading up photography, and you’re left with an intense and enthralling film which offers a perfect blend of action and psychology, wide spaces and a stormy epicentre of emotions.

Sukkwan Island was produced by French firm Haut et Court in co-production with Maipo Film (Norway), Versus Production (Belgium) and Good Chaos (UK). mk2 Films are heading up world sales.

(Translated from French)