Echo

2019 ‘Bergmál’ Directed by Rúnar Rúnarsson

Through 56 independent scenes, Echo draws a portrait, both biting and tender, of modern day Iceland during the often turbulent but also exciting time of the Christmas holidays.

Ragnar Jónsson Bjarki Thor Sigurmar Albertsson Bent Kingo Andersen Sif Arnarsdóttir Ari Arnarson Finnur Arnar Arnarson Árni Arnarson Gísli Már Arnarsson Jon Magnus Arnarsson Pétur Arnarsson Bragi Arnason Fannar Freyr Atlason Sigurjón Þór Atlason Álfgrímur Aðalsteinsson Ólíver Tumi Auðunsson Messíana Baldvinsdóttir Mikael Hrafn Baldvinsson Michele Bardasi Armando Begirai

79 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Hamish Brown ★★★★

Everyone has a story...
Echo is an interesting film. It’s made up from 56 shots and 56 stories, all around a minute long with no connection between one another. It’s a quiet and patient Frankenstein’s monster of a voyage in to Icelandic life over the Christmas holidays and I doubt it’ll be for everyone. Personally the style of storytelling left me with a lot of power on what I wanted to interpret the meaning of the film as, what I wanted the message to be, which I really liked. For me it was a reminder that everyone around you has their own life outside of you, it may be good, it may be bad. The people around you are main characters of their own story. So, for them, why not try and be the best side character you can. And of course, for yourself, try and be the best main character you can.
Around the World (🇮🇸)
Review by puffin ★★★★ 2

Each scene is like the thesis to a larger film, 56 little stories in total, with an average of just over a minute per scene. And if I recall correctly, each scene is told with a single shot, and every edit acts as a transition from one story to the next. Small connections are made occasionally by events like radio or television broadcasts, but the broader point of connection is that each scene takes place in Iceland around the holidays. And while some scenes are smaller gestures or more decidedly minor sequences, they all feel significant enough to warrant an inclusion.
The rhythm of differing experiences, positive or negative or neutral, add up to a pretty all-encompassing example of the…
Review by Conchobarre ★★★★

A beautiful meditation on the Icelandic place, people and society through a series of vignettes which are subtly linked. It's through the prism of the Christmas holiday season. I wish every country could get one of these. The setting up of all the scenes must have been an enormous amount of work, it's quite incredible because every shot is exquisite.
Review by col_plimp ★★★½

Einsam, mit Verwandten oder Idioten, herzlich, traurig, betrunken, enttäuscht, stressig...
Irgendwie sogartig wird mit wirklich vielen (~50) kurzen Ausschnitten aus aus dem winterlichen Island, die Menschen jeden Alters und aus allen Bereichen und Schichten zeigen, eine unkonventionelle Weihnachtszeit "gefeiert"; wobei Island hier nur stellvertretend für unser globalisiertes und zeitgenössisches Europa steht.
Mit seinem puzzleartigen Format ist Echo etwas für die düsteren Tage zum Ende des Jahres, was vermutlich jeden irgendwann einmal packt - politisch und gesellschaftlich top-aktuell, schmerzhaft-authentisch, richtig melancholisch und total menschlich.
Review by Wyatt Winborne ★★★★★ 2

Watched in multiple sittings and this movie STILL fucked me up. Possibly my second favorite of 2019 (or is this technically a 2020 film?). Cinematography on another level. Patience, thoughtfulness, compassion. This is transcendent filmmaking with the lightest touch, the least manipulation. It's so unbelievably powerful. Will watch again very very soon. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and WATCH IT IMMEDIATELY.
Also, MUBI is quickly becoming my favorite streaming platform.
Review by RasmusS ★★★½

Cinema that on the surface is simply there to convey an emotion of the moment, to remind us of the joys and hardships we all face but also to make sense of those feelings on a broader scale by connecting random people together and therefore becoming an admirable effort to make sense of the whole damn world around us.
2020 ranked
Review by Julps2 ★★★★ 1

Echo is a film made of 56 vignettes, each one shot which last around a minute, that relate daily life in Iceland around Christmas and New Years Day. Its sense of humanity mixed with the country's beautiful scenery makes it the ultimate comfort movie.
I'd normally say wait for a snowy day during the holidays to watch it with a cup of hot cocoa but given all we've experienced in the last few months, you deserve it right now!
Review by Thorsteinn ★★★★½

Ég er búinn að bíða svo lengi eftir þessari mynd. Ekki bókstaflega þessari mynd, en svona mynd.
Mynd sem fangar augnablik, frekar en heila sögu. Mynd sem nær að spegla raunveruleikann svona nákvæmlega.
Þetta er eitthvað sem ég hallast oft að í minni eigin kvikmyndagerð. Ekkert set-up eða resolution, bara tilfinning.
Ég er smá hissa að rúnar gerði þessa mynd þar sem að hún er ansi öðruvísi en hans fyrri myndir. Það kemur mér samt ekkert á óvart að hún kemur svona vel út, af því að rúnar er besti stuttmyndagerðarmaður íslands.
Sögurnar eru svo mismunandi, en passa samt allar saman. Leikararnir standa sig frábærlega, og margar sögurnar eru mjög áhrifamiklar.
Meira svona bíó.
Review by Hutch ★★★★ 4

Rúnar Rúnarsson’s Film is an imaginative and immaculately composed series of tableaux that combine to moving and satisfying effect. There are 56 short scenes, all shot with a fixed camera aimed at a moment in the life of a cross-section of modern Icelanders going about their business over the Christmas season.
The scenes progress not as a story, but with a loose connective tissue - from a scene of men walking across the snow, to a mum tenderly cradling her infant wondering if birds feel the cold, to an undertaker talking on the phone to his child while sitting in front of a dead boy in an open casket, to a man in a solarium speaking on the phone to…
Review by Samcrom ★★★★½ 2

So you know when a film has a closing shot that conveys more than itself, that leaves you breathless from its swift power and reeling from its uncompromising stamp of finality? Yeah… so this is 56 of those.
Each shot is a fleeting glimpse of a story. A coiled wire of tension; a building of dread for that inevitable cut. The cut is the end, the death of that vignette, the last you will *ever* see or hear of these characters. Final, jarring, jolting, freeing, revealing—
Each image is a floating snowflake in a hushed night. A wistful whirlwind. “No, don’t leave yet…” I whisper to each of the characters before they’re gone, imploring them to tell me more of…
Review by Aomame333 ★★★½

A beautiful film on so many levels.
The ordering of the various vignettes was very impressive. A mother holding a baby is followed by a young child lying in a casket at his funeral. We see a barn full of goats packed together and then immediately after a gym full of people packed together.
Review by Rutledal ★★★★

56 shots, 56 scenes, 56 slices of Icelandic life.

Recent reviews

Review by Jeremy Audet ★★★★

Unexpected christmas movie. Now my new favourite christmas movie. Very moving and human
Review by David ★★★

Oh what a treat! They don’t make many films, or at least not many get distributed internationally, but their batting average is through the roof.
This delicate, warm, humane film shows some of the best sides of Iceland, it also features some of the less desirable, immigration features heavily.
There’s a Roy Andersson tinge to the drama, though without the set design. This is very much based in reality, most of which, of course, is set in Reykjavic.
A terrific slice of life.
Review by RaumGrau ★

Kapitalismus. Nostalgie. Einsamkeit. Gefühl. Fürsorge. Wettkampf. Distanz - Viele Symptome, keine Ideen. Zusammenhalt findet hier nur in Tradition und Glaube statt.
Oft banal und seltsam romantisch. Ein Film, der mit seiner Kritik so verfährt, wie mit den Körpern seiner Figuren: Nur der obere Teil ist zu sehen, der Rest ist seltsam abgeschnitten.
(Die Szene einer Schultheater-Aufführung, bei der die Eltern nur ihre Smartphones in die Luft halten, anstatt tatsächlich hinzusehen, entbehrt nicht einer gewissen Ironie, da der Film dem Zuschauer auch nicht mehr anbietet, als eben diesen Blick.)
Review by billyninja ★★

This is basically an ad for tourism!
Review by Chris Campbell ★★★★½

A beautiful collection of vignettes from Iceland all set between Christmas and New Years Day. Some are more directly connected than others, but all of them are beautifully shot and reveal aspects of Icelandic society and culture.
Review by Okkvlt ★★★★

o filme de natal mais triste que eu já vi
Review by şevin ★★★

sayısız hayat hikayesini size sunan oldukça ilginç bulduğum ve beğendiğim bir iş
Review by Rob Watts ★★★★★

A beautiful, all-encompassing look at modern Iceland through a series of 56 vignettes that run the gamut of human emotion and the spectrum of society.
Review by thppr ★★★½

don't know if I could live there, looks very cold
Review by Alejandro Castellanos ★★★½

I didn't know that this was a Christmas movie. It's odd watching a Christmas film in March, but I don't mind, it was quite good!
First, this has one of the most beautifully framed compositions I've ever seen. And also, the sound mixing was surprisingly amazing, which is a pleasant surprise.
Echo is an Icelandic film that consists of 56 vignettes of the lifestyle in Iceland. Surprisingly, every single one of them are good.
The whole film is dry and flat, emotionless, which reminds me a lot of Haneke's style. This feeling is reinforced by the decision of making each vignette using an unmoving single shot, by the use of situational irony, and how uncomfortable some of them are. It could also be because Haneke has a film which I suppose is like this, 71 Fragments, which I yet have to watch.
Overall, Echo is a chill film that doesn't require too much thought, but is still amazing.
Review by Novrian Harits ★★★★

'Echo' is an immense 56 scenes of people vibing which resonates pretty deep with me. A meditative journey asking the simple question 'How's your life?' accompanied with its picture perfect stationary cinematography.

ow shit this is my 100th film logged this year. yeay.
Review by ahsencamlica ★★★★

norveç’te bok olmak