1988·Comedy·1h 4m
7.1
★
While their mother is dying in the modern Gimli, Manitoba hospital, two young children are told an important tale by their Icelandic grandmother about Einar the lonely, his friend Gunnar, and the angelic Snjofrieder in a Gimli of old.
Directed by Guy Maddin
avant-garde
Trailer
IMDB
N/A
Where to Watch
Cast
Kyle McCulloch
Einar the Lonely / Minstrel
George Toles
Angel with Mustache
Brent Neale
Valdimar / Gimli Manfolk
David James Lewis
Gimli Manfolk / Patient
Crew
Guy Maddin
Director
Guy Maddin
Writer
Guy Maddin
Editor
George Toles
Story Consultant
Guy Maddin
Cinematography
Kyle McCulloch
Assistant Director
Popular Reviews
8 reviews
thomo
9.0★ · 11/18/24
"My legs are still warm from the flesh of Snjófridur"
"My legs are still warm from the flesh of Snjófridur"
Nik Wolinski
3.6★ · 10/22/22
It’s October and I’m watching scary/Halloween themed movies. 22/30
This was... I don't really know what this was, to be honest. It's very clear that Guy Maddin loves him some silent film era techniques. I think maybe I'm not smart enough to get it.
But there was a minstrel in blackface for a not insignificant amount of screentime and that felt icky to me.
Ok ok I'm gonna try to break it down for real. Jealousy, toxic masculinity, the commodification of women, there's a lot going on here. Also—and this is not a joke, though it will sound like one—the main character has sex with a corpse. And like, he knows she's a corpse because he happens upon her literally on a funeral pyre.
There is a pretty intense buttgrappling fight at the end which results in a kiss between the main character and the guy whose wife was the corpse. There's probably a lot of psychosexual stuff going on here that I can't quite comprehend right now.
It just blows my mind that this whole story is something that a grandmother is telling her grandchildren while their mother is in a hospital bed dying. Afterwards, the kids ask the grandma if she'll visit them, to which she responds "if your father allows." Which, after a story like that, seems unlikely.
This was... I don't really know what this was, to be honest. It's very clear that Guy Maddin loves him some silent film era techniques. I think maybe I'm not smart enough to get it.
But there was a minstrel in blackface for a not insignificant amount of screentime and that felt icky to me.
Ok ok I'm gonna try to break it down for real. Jealousy, toxic masculinity, the commodification of women, there's a lot going on here. Also—and this is not a joke, though it will sound like one—the main character has sex with a corpse. And like, he knows she's a corpse because he happens upon her literally on a funeral pyre.
There is a pretty intense buttgrappling fight at the end which results in a kiss between the main character and the guy whose wife was the corpse. There's probably a lot of psychosexual stuff going on here that I can't quite comprehend right now.
It just blows my mind that this whole story is something that a grandmother is telling her grandchildren while their mother is in a hospital bed dying. Afterwards, the kids ask the grandma if she'll visit them, to which she responds "if your father allows." Which, after a story like that, seems unlikely.
It’s October and I’m watching scary/Halloween themed movies. 22/30
This was... I don't really know what this was, to be honest. It's very clear that Guy Maddin loves him some silent film era techniques. I think maybe I'm not smart enough to get it.
But there was a minstrel in blackface for a not insignificant amount of screentime and that felt icky to me.
Ok ok I'm gonna try to break it down for real. Jealousy, toxic masculinity, the commodification of women, there's a lot going on here. Also—and this is not a joke, though it will sound like one—the main character has sex with a corpse. And like, he knows she's a corpse because he happens upon her literally on a funeral pyre.
There is a pretty intense buttgrappling fight at the end which results in a kiss between the main character and the guy whose wife was the corpse. There's probably a lot of psychosexual stuff going on here that I can't quite comprehend right now.
It just blows my mind that this whole story is something that a grandmother is telling her grandchildren while their mother is in a hospital bed dying. Afterwards, the kids ask the grandma if she'll visit them, to which she responds "if your father allows." Which, after a story like that, seems unlikely.
This was... I don't really know what this was, to be honest. It's very clear that Guy Maddin loves him some silent film era techniques. I think maybe I'm not smart enough to get it.
But there was a minstrel in blackface for a not insignificant amount of screentime and that felt icky to me.
Ok ok I'm gonna try to break it down for real. Jealousy, toxic masculinity, the commodification of women, there's a lot going on here. Also—and this is not a joke, though it will sound like one—the main character has sex with a corpse. And like, he knows she's a corpse because he happens upon her literally on a funeral pyre.
There is a pretty intense buttgrappling fight at the end which results in a kiss between the main character and the guy whose wife was the corpse. There's probably a lot of psychosexual stuff going on here that I can't quite comprehend right now.
It just blows my mind that this whole story is something that a grandmother is telling her grandchildren while their mother is in a hospital bed dying. Afterwards, the kids ask the grandma if she'll visit them, to which she responds "if your father allows." Which, after a story like that, seems unlikely.
EmmaPRO
6.0★ · 12/31/25
sodachamp
8.0★ · 03/14/25
Poo
7.0★ · 01/29/24