Made in Iceland.

Long thought of as the acceptable place for rich scenesters to go clubbing, Icelanders are now starting to turn out some movies that reflect the frozen little island’s style world. But while a film like 101 Reykjavík plumped for the house music bubble, Dagur Kári’s Nói Albinói is something rarer.

“It doesn’t really have any potential,” the twentysomething director says of the club scene. “It wouldn’t surprise me if people start to hate Iceland. That’s what happens with hype,” he adds gloomily. “The whole of Iceland is basically desert. If you make a realistic film in a small town in the countryside it would be about one thing, and that’s the fish industry.” But fishing’s not where Kári’s interests lie either.

His story of a teen albino trapped in an ice-locked small town purgatory is a coming-of-age tale, bound between grinding humdrum and exquisite surrealism. As he puts it, “Taking place on the limits of the world, isolated by snow.”

The movie has its quirks. “It’s funny to see an old woman holding a shotgun,” says Dagur dryly of one of the more eccentric interchanges between Nói and his granny. And Tómas Lemarquis (Nói) sure doesn’t look like the other kids – the actor has alopecia. But the lead is every bit as charismatic a teen rebel as James Dean or Brando.

Dagur, for his part, describes himself as the boy who always took the math test. So given that Nói is brave enough to walk out of class, get the girl and send a tape recorder in his place to school - despised by the teachers but actually an overlooked genius - might there not be a touch of wish fulfilment at work? “I hadn’t thought about it,” the softly spoken director says, taken aback. “But I always admired the kids who didn’t do what they were told.”

Tómas, on the other hand, is “one minute every mother’s dream and the next a troublemaker. He’s always doing something with his hands. And when we were shooting he lived in a cellar with a ceiling this high.” Dagur indicates about 5ft, impressed. Well, being different isn’t easy and Nói is a wilfully unique imprint on a strange young country. Skye Sherwin 14 November 03

Nói Albinói, on selected release 14 November 03.

useful link: lff: noi albinoi