OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2025 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL (Premiere)
From award-winning writer/director Hlynur Pálmason (Godland, A White, White Day) – one of cinema’s most singular contemporary artists – THE LOVE THAT REMAINS tenderly and hilariously captures a year in the life of a family of five, as the parents navigate their separation.
Though in the throes of a splitting up, Anna (Saga Garðarsdóttir) and Magnus (Sverrir Gudnason) still spend time together for the sake of their three children, Ída and twins Þorgils and Grímur (played, remarkably, by the three real-life children of director Pálmason). Magnus works at sea, infrequently returning to land, where he asserts himself as the patriarch with limited efficacy. Anna is an artist whose vast and impressive works fail to receive suitable recognition. In their interactions across the changing seasons, whilst there's sufficient indication of why the separation is happening, there's also the familiarity of a long-held love and a glimmer of a chance of reconciliation...
Beginning in a particular tone, THE LOVE THAT REMAINS takes radical and wonderful diversions into thrilling comedic and fantastical sequences. “Life is nothing but a fucking hassle, but the animals bring us joy,” one character says. But Pálmason conveys so much love and emotion in this deeply felt film that there’s certainly a great deal of delight to be taken from spending time with these humans too.