Grief is a steep and rocky slope and in The Mountain, director Ásthildur Kjartansdóttir uses the dramatic highlands of Iceland to mirror the emotional terrain of a man struggling with a profound sense of loss. 

The Mountain follows Atli (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson), a former musician turned electrician whose life is upended with the sudden death of his wife Maria (Sólveig Guðmundsdóttir), an amateur astronomer whose bid to photograph a new comet ends tragically on a mountainside in the pitch dark.

Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney and Björn Hlynur Haraldsson in The Mountain

Racked with guilt over missed opportunities and unspoken regrets, Atli hits the bottle and retreats into angry isolation. It’s through the glimmers of his pregnant daughter Anna’s resilience – and a fraught journey to retrace Maria’s steps – that Atli begins to re-engage with the world and, ultimately, himself.

The screenplay treads some familiar, occasionally soapy ground at times, and its narrative beats don’t surprise much, but Haraldsson is excellent in the role of the middle-aged dad who has lost his anchor. His scenes with Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney (daughter of Icelandic superstar Björk and the artist Matthew Barney) who her screen...