Godland is a Danish film set in late 19th century Iceland, shot on color 16mm and immersed in the country's beautiful (literally land-of-ice) landscape. It has strong technical qualities, and an overall impressively impressionistic narrative approach, but it suffers from a lack of storytelling ambition. A lot of these elements have been done many times before, and while its combination of cinematic style and location reaps its visual rewards more often than not, it likely will struggle to stand out outside the art-house sphere of film. This is not because of the interesting mix of Danish/Icelandic language, or the interesting observations on masculinity/colonialism/cultural imperialism/religion, or the commitment from the actors and everyone involved in the film production. It is because the screenplay has no stakes for its center protagonist, if he lives, if he dies, if he's murdered, if he murders, we do not really care as he, and no fault at all to the actor, is not interesting. His inner turmoil, implied to be repressed homosexuality, is nothing new for arthouse cinema. The fascination with old-fashioned photography is the ostensible 'reason' for this story's very existence, but I never felt as if he actually cared about the photos he was taking. I wish this movie had thought harder about developing its protagonist as a character, past his cowardice, past his pretentiousness, by forcing him to actually make decisions that are relevant to the plot. It is the one thing preventing this movie from being a contemporary art-house classic.