The Juniper Tree (film)

The Juniper Tree is a 1990 Icelandic black-and-white medieval fantasy drama film directed and written by Nietzchka Keene, based on the fairy tale "The Juniper Tree" collected by the Brothers Grimm, it stars a small cast of five actors: Björk Guðmundsdóttir, Bryndis Petra Bragadóttir, Guðrún Gísladóttir, Valdimar Örn Flygenring and Geirlaug Sunna Þormar.[1] The film was selected to compete for the Grand Jury Prize – Dramatic at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival.

The Juniper Tree
Re-release poster
IcelandicEinitréð
Directed byNietzchka Keene
Produced byPatrick Moyroud
Written byNietzchka Keene
Starring
  • Björk Guðmundsdóttir
  • Bryndis Petra Bragadóttir
  • Guðrún Gísladóttir
  • Valdimar Örn Flygenring
  • Geirlaug Sunna Þormar
Music byLarry Lipkis
CinematographyRandy Sellars
Edited byNietzchka Keene
Distributed byRhino Home Video
Release date
  • 10 April 1990 (1990-04-10) (Sundance)
  • 12 February 1993 (1993-02-12)
Running time
78 minutes
CountryIceland
LanguageEnglish

Plot

In Iceland, two sisters, Margit and her elder sister Katla, escape their home after their mother is stoned and burned for practising witchcraft. They go where no one knows them, and find Jóhann, a young widower who has a son called Jónas. Katla uses magical powers to seduce Jóhann and they start living together.

Margit and Jónas become friends. However, Jónas does not accept Katla as his stepmother and tries to convince his father to leave her. Katla's magic power is too strong and even though he knows he should leave her, he can't. Margit's mother appears to her in visions and Jónas' mother appears as a raven and to bring him a magical feather. Eventually, Katla kills the boy by challenging him to jump off a cliff to prove his mother will save him. Margit figures out what her sister has done but remains silent.

One day, she hears a bird sing and thinks it is Jónas returned. She tells Jóhann this and states that her sister did not mean to kill his son. Katla runs away leaving Margit to live with the man. Eventually, he also leaves and Margit is left to console herself by creating folklore-type stories about birds.

Cast
  • Björk Guðmundsdóttir as Margit
  • Bryndis Petra Bragadóttir as Katla
  • Guðrún Gísladóttir as Margit and Katla's mother
  • Valdimar Örn Flygenring as Jóhann
  • Geirlaug Sunna Þormar as Jónas

Production

Filming took place in 1986 Iceland with an extraordinarily small budget.[2] It was shot in black and white to highlight its dramatic content and as a resource to place the story in the Middle Ages. Some scenes were filmed at the Reynisfjara basalt columns and the Seljalandsfoss waterfall on the south coast of Iceland.[3]

Release

Due to financial problems, the film did not see distribution until 1990, when it competed for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.[2] It was restored to 4K resolution by the Center for Film & Theatre Research, Wisconsin, premiering at the AFI Fest on 10 November 2018.[4] It saw a limited theatrical release on 15 March 2019.[5]

Rhino Home Video released the film on VHS in 1995 and on DVD in 2002.

Critical reception

The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 100% approval rating, and an average rating of 7.8/10, based on 19 reviews.[6] According to Metacritic, which sampled 6 reviews and calculated an average score of 86 out of 100, the film received "universal acclaim".[7]

Glenn Kenny from The New York Times praised Keene's direction and Björk's "enchanting" performance.[8] David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film "B+" and wrote "A wonderful performance from a 21-year-old Björk is one of many reasons to see Nietzchka Keene's newly restored medieval fantasy."[9]

References
  1. "THE JUNIPER TREE (EINITRÉÐ)". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  2. Hughes, Hilary (March 3, 2019). "Watch Bjork Sing in This Hypnotic Clip of 'The Juniper Tree,' Her Newly Restored Feature Film Debut". Billboard. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
  3. Asch, Mark (2019-03-14). ""Review: The Juniper Tree"". Film Comment. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  4. Aubrey, Elizabeth (2018-11-03). "Björk's dreamy 1990 film debut 'The Juniper Tree' to be re-released". NME. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  5. Crump, Andy. "The Juniper Tree". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  6. "The Juniper Tree (1990)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  7. "The Juniper Tree Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  8. Kenny, Glenn (March 14, 2019). "'The Juniper Tree' Review: A Young Björk Enchants in Her Film Acting Debut". The New York Times. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  9. Ehrlich, David (March 14, 2019). "The Juniper Tree Review: Björk's First Movie Is Ripe for Rediscovery". IndieWire. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
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