[Fantasia International Film Festival]: No Rest For The Wicked

Helge (played by Pilou Asbæk)

Set against the dark and foreboding backdrop of the Faroe Islands in the late 1800s, Kaspar Kalle’s No Rest For The Wicked is a gothically enthralling tale of lost love, and longing from the grave. Having its world premiere at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, No Rest For The Wicked follows a young fisherman who, after encountering a stranger at sea, finds his life turned upside down and his eyes opened to experiences behind the shore.

Baldur (played by Egor Venned) is a young fisherman who resides with his recently widowed mother, and whilst out in his boat on a rough stretch of water, comes across a Danish man struggling to stay afloat. Risking his life to bring him ashore, Baldur introduces the man called Helge (played by Pilou Asbæk) to his mother, and he quickly becomes welcomed amongst other members of the small community. Baldur begins to experience feelings towards the newcomer that soon become reciprocated, but after a terrible tragedy, his new found love is taken from him forever. After Baldur himself succumbs to a mysterious illness, a strange haunting afflicts the island colony, proving that sometimes, a love can last well beyond the reaches of death.

Baldur and Helge

An amalgamation of vampiric folklore, queer romance drama, and the gothic, No Rest For The Wicked is a brooding and stormy tragedy where the landscape is as much a character as the actors. The characters are encompassed and at the mercy of the callous and cruel waters that surround their home, engulfed regularly by dangerous fog, and their survival depends on the benignancy of their natural environment. The island is a symbolism of the deep isolation and loneliness that main character Baldur experiences. Through depiction of this rugged and unyielding livelihood, the audience experiences Baldur’s inherent sadness at his life before Helge, having to be his mother’s emotional keeper (who is also experiencing her own grief and thus clinging on to her son), never knowing a life outside of the island, as well as grappling with his sexuality. Egor Venned plays Baldur with a stoicness, and despite his lack of dialogue, tells the story and gets across the character’s emotional turmoil with just his facial expressions.

No Rest For The Wicked is a beautifully sad queer romance which marries the gothic perfectly throughout the rustic environment, and as the story develops into the supernatural, it never feels forced or out of place, in fact it feels like a natural progression to flow into vampirism as Baldur gives over to his love, despite the judgement from his mother and the ostracisation he experiences from members of his community. 

5 Screams out of 5