Mark Reviews Movies: THE COUNTY

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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 29, 2021

The couple's farm is struggling. At the start of The County, their farm has been in financial trouble for some time, and the primary reason is an organization, established more than a century ago, that was established specifically to ensure that farmers wouldn't have to struggle.

Writer/director Grímur Hákonarson's movie is about corruption and, more specifically, one woman's seemingly hopeless fight against that corruption. Inga (Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir) married into this life as a dairy farmer in a rural area of Iceland, by way of her husband Reynir (Hinrik Ólafsson).

Their business is in debt, and the only thing keeping them afloat is the local farmers' co-op, which buys the milk. The co-op, which also sells the local farmers equipment and feed and everything else they need at a higher price than almost any other retailer, is also the reason they're in such debt. The organization, which has been coercing Reynir to squeal on any farmer whom he discovers buying supplies from elsewhere, is likely why Inga's husband drives his truck off the road one night, killing him.

The movie, bolstered by Egilsdóttir's restrained performance of simmering ire, follows Inga in her personal battle against the co-op and its corrupt officials, who care more about profit than the farmers' ability to survive. We see that corruption in practice, as the officials have closed-door meetings about the trouble Inga is causing, as she is threatened, and as the community becomes divided over her online rants and, later, her plan to start a new co-op.

There isn't much more to this story, really, which provides a fine sense of isolation (Thanks, in part, to Hákonarson and cinematographer Mart Taniel's bleak depiction of the landscape) and an understated sense of outrage. It's a thin, often repetitive narrative that doesn't dig too deeply into these characters, the politics and history of the co-op, or the debate about the organization's obvious flaws and good, if broken, intentions.

The low-key tone and Egilsdóttir's presence, though, do give this story a sense of mourning for the personal and professional losses that this corruption has created, and that goes a good way toward making The County feel much more intimate and thoughtful than some simple melodrama or political diatribe. All of that only exists on the surface of this movie, though, and ultimately, its effectiveness as a character study and its purpose are pretty shallow.

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