Film set in Iceland, which invites us to reflect on a problem that affects many producers in rural areas of the world.
What is the plot of The County? Inga works with her husband on the farm that her husband inherited from his family. In that rural area, everyone belongs to a cooperative and must abide by its rules. They can only buy supplies from the companies that belong to the cooperative, and they must only sell to members. Anyone in the village who violates these rules risks having their business fail, due to pressure from the cooperative. When Inga's husband dies in strange circumstances she embarks on a fight against the organisation.
The eternal struggle between David and Goliath is what we see in this film of social denunciation. Before you decide to watch the film, I must warn you that this is social cinema. You must be sure that you like these stories, otherwise you will stop watching the movie a few minutes after it starts.
If the movie were made for Hollywood, it would be a quick entertainment, with dizzying turns of the script. But it is not. It is an Icelandic production, so the pace is slow and there are no script effects. It tries to show a problem as real as possible.
The battle between Inga, the woman who runs the farm and lost her husband, against a cooperative that was set up several decades ago to create fair conditions among the village producers and free themselves from the yoke of big business, but over time, it became the very thing they were fighting for. Now the cooperative maintains control of the farmers, their products and even the lives of all the villagers.
The tactics of threats, extortion and even possible assassination (that is not clear in the film) are applied by the cooperative. It is against all of this that Inga decides to protest, through her facebook page, and then makes a television appearance. She describes it very well, the cooperative is a mafia.
Many cooperatives are born with good intentions, to create better conditions for their members, but human corruption is afraid of damaging everything. Corruption, the craving for power and the ambition for money, destroys any system.
Power is a vice for humans, having the ability to force other people to do what we want, makes them feel above any law. And anyone who dares to question them or fight against them will be condemned and defeated. In real life, endings are not happy, power always imposes itself.
Grímur Hákonarson directs The Film. The filmmaker's previous work includes the acclaimed film Summerland. Then, in 2015, he releases the film Rams, which tells the story of two brothers, Icelandic farmers, who have personal differences, but who will unite to save their herd of cows. The director has a broad knowledge of rural Icelandic life, and has managed to capture the problems and realities of people working with livestock. He has also been in charge of several documentaries.
The actress Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir plays Inga, the main character, and through her we will live the day-to-day life of the farmers in this Icelandic village. Her character is the one who maintains the story, through her eyes and her determined rebellion against the cooperative. I was surprised by this actress, her first scene, where she must help with the birth of a cow, the camera focuses on the actress, without any trick she was the one who made that scene. Surely she must have experience on the farm.
Viewers will identify with Inga, because her struggle is just, she wants to get rid of the slavery that means following the rules of a cooperative that lost the purpose for which it was created. Will she succeed? Can the weak defeat the strong?
For those who like cinema with a message and a social denunciation.
My Ranking: 3.9/5
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