For most people, there’s not much to do on the Faroe Islands. To twenty-something Kári (Sámal Hildibjartsson Hansen), that’s perfectly alright. The Last Paradise on Earth, the winner of the 2025 Nordic Council Film Prize issued by the Nordisk Film & TV Fond, is Faroese filmmaker Sakaris Stórá’s sophomore work, and it became the first movie from the Faroe Islands to be nominated for and receive the award. What’s more, his short film Winter Morning collected a prize from the Berlinale’s Generation KPlus strand in 2014. With a story by Stórá and a script by Tommy Oksen, Mads Stegger and Stórá, The Last Paradise on Earth played most recently at Norway’s Tromsø International Film Festival, in the Films from the North strand; Stórá himself studied filmmaking in northern Norway.

Our protagonist lives in a small town with his single father and his sister, Silja (Bjørg Brynhildardóttir Egholm), the latter fully in her angsty age. “Go slice some fish or get a life,” she howls at Kári, who is outwardly subdued but under the surface is full of emotion bursting to come out. The lost-in-communication aspect is crucial to the family’s dynamics, with the siblings in deep but silent mourning over the loss of their late mother. Kári's own father (Hans Tórgarð) only tells him he’s leaving to work on a boat one day before he plans to do so, leaving his son to maintain the home.

Outfitted in a blue poncho, Kári works at the local fish factory, which is on the brink of closure, prepping whole fish as part of an assembly line. It’s far from what many would consider a dream job, but he has no issue working there. Everyone in his life seems to be trying to leave the Faroe Islands for new opportunities, including his friend Regin (Bjørn M Mohr) and his love interest Elin (Esther á Fjallinum) – all except Kári himself.

But let it be clear: his entangled emotional state is far from a feeling of complacency, and this is deftly conveyed through Hildibjartsson Hansen’s performance in very few words as well as through the intimate handheld camera of DoP Virginie Surdej, who lensed the helmer’s last film and all of Maryam Touzani’s features. The profound beauty of the landscape – shot in dramatic, extra-wide shots with few characters – hits viewers like a truck, but the scenery never detracts focus from the impact of the narrative. An ambient, string-based score (original music by Hettarher) sporadically accompanies the filmmaker’s shots of the Faroe Islands, whose atmosphere oscillates between crystal clear and foggy dreamland – a symbolic gesture nodding towards what we all take for granted. The scenery wordlessly illuminates Kári’s love for his beloved home, something only he seems to notice.

His own gentle insistence on staying – becoming an integral part of the community along the way – challenges the status quo, calling into question just why everyone wishes to leave. Stórá has created a thematically abundant and underrated work that acts as a moving tribute to the Faroe Islands, one’s home and oneself, about both what changes and what remains the same.

The Last Paradise on Earth is a production by Denmark’s Adomeit Film ApS and the Faroe Islands’ Outlier Projects (formerly known as Kykmyndir). The film is sold by Copenhagen-based sales outfit Reinvent Yellow.