Film Review

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Cold Fever
Directed by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
WinStar Home Entertainment 04/96 DVD/VHS Feature Film
Not Rated

Cold Fever focuses on the spiritual journey of Atsushi Hirati, a young Tokyo businessman who gives up a golf vacation in Hawaii to perform a memorial service for his parents at a remote river in Iceland where they died years ago. According to Japanese custom, their spirits must be comforted and fed so they will be at peace.

Hirati's patience and stamina are tested on his arduous trip across the frigid island in an old Citroen. He encounters a woman obsessed with funerals, two restless and dangerous Americans, and a spirit girl whose screams devastate icebergs.

Hirati finally meets an elderly man whose practical and mystical proclivities are just what he needs to fulfill his familial obligations.

Written and directed by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Cold Fever is an endearing and fascinating film that is both a valentine to the charms of Iceland and a flinty meditation on a young man's quest to bestow a blessing on the parents he took for granted.

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by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat