A tone switch for Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason – after man vs. nature historical drama Godland and startling psychological thriller A White, White Day, The Love That Remains brings humour and fantasy to a tender, inventive and surprising account of the end of a marriage and its effects within a family.

Filled with evocative imagery of spectacular Icelandic landscapes, and strikingly composed (the film was shot on 35mm, in Academy ratio), the film introduces us to artist Anna (Saga Gardarsdottir) and fisherman Magnus (Sverrir Gudnason), their three children (played by Palmason’s real life kids) and a scene-stealing family dog. Anna is certain about her break-up with Magnus; he is less so. He continues to return home when he’s not at sea, but his influence in the family is on the wane…

Over the course of a year, in a series of droll, thoughtful, occasionally mysterious and surreal vignettes, Pálmason delivers an airy but aching study of marriage, family life and the confusion and loss of separation.