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Sundance 2025 Review: Sukkwan Island – “As beautiful and menacing as Mother Nature.”

A teenager agrees to spend a year on a remote Norwegian island with his father. The idyllic adventure turns into quest to survive the natural elements and their own personal demons.

In effort to reconnect with his son and usher him into manhood, Tom makes arrangements with his estranged wife for what promises to be a great year-long adventure in a cabin located on remote Sukkwan Island. At first, things are as tranquil as the environment, however, slowly threatening aspects start to creep in such as a mysterious bear that trashes the cabin and then a brutal winter which calls into question their survival skills.

Adult Roy appearing at the beginning informs the viewer that he survived the outing to revisit the cabin before it gets torn down while it is mentioned that his father died a decade ago. What then follows is a flashback that explains what happened during the time spent on Sukkwan Island. There is nothing wrong with the acting or the cinematography which can be as beautiful and menacing as Mother Nature.

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The fundamental flaw is the narrative which does not set up the twist in a believable manner as it seems so random. That is not to say that random things do not happen in life; however, when someone immediately does something that he convinced another not to do it feels rather forced and shock for the sake of shock. Not surprisingly the reaction to the story is similar to Atonement which is another example of someone taking control of the narrative in an effort to deal with guilt. The trouble is that the end result is not something that emotionally resonates but instead has a hollow and cold ring to it.

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival takes place January 23 to February 2, 2025, in person and online, and for more information visit sundance.org.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.

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