The Last Farm, a short Icelandic film directed by Rúnar Rúnarsson and starring Jón Sigurbjörnsson, is now being featured in the YouTube Screening Room. Nominated for an Academy Award for Live Action Short Film in 2006, the 20-minute production gets into some sobering yet inescapably universal issues – love, aging, family and death. And I’ll leave it at that. You can now find this film listed in our collection of Free Movies Online along with 200+ high quality cinematic works. Or you can purchase it on a DVD that brings together several Academy Award-nominated short films from 2005.
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Title grabbed me instantly, since my dad grew up on a farm (Texas, not Iceland)and my writing is about a fictional farm family.
It’s a hard life. Something solid about it, though, and something lost when it’s gone.
this is typically of the overly sentimentalised mush that attracts Oscar nominations… please, the man buries himself alive – I’m guessing he regrets that about five seconds later. The film’s about nothing!
‘typical’ – sorry, too vexed to edit!
patrick,
I’ll assume you have the experience and cred to sling an attitude like that around and aren’t just chiming in from a loft in Tribeca between classes at NYU.
I’m a human on the planet – I think that entitles me to give ‘my own’ opinion. What special ‘experience’ do I need – it’s not a terribly difficult film to read (it being about nothing).
I have as much experience as I need to recognise a poor plot-line, an idealised ending, a mediocre performance, a pedestrian script… and so on.
Patrick,
Commenting on the technical aspects is one thing. Commenting on the mindsets of people you don’t know, don’t know anything about, and have no intention of learning about is just bohemian pretension.
Patrick,
It’s not about any of that. It’s about an old man content to end his life where he is and not be forced to live out the remainder in a home.
that true vicky
This was about the tragedy of aging in a society that fears it. Instead of honoring old people, this society puts “old people” away, won’t let them just be. I don’t blame him for commttiing suicide, because he knew that his life was threatened by those who would take him away from his farm, and away from his dead wife. I wonder what would happen if nursing homes were illegal, and instead, services delivered to the elderly where they live. A very sad film. Nobody helped him.
You have not lived, or loved or lost or grieved if this does not resonate within your bones.
Life is not just about the victory, the ovations, the brass ring grabbed.
love is beatiful
that was a good film thanks
excellent! it really grabbed my attention from the beginning. Trully sad and real
The film made me think and in my mind that makes it a good film. It is obvious a lot of heart went into this. Even if somebody doesn’t like it, it takes a cold heart to criticize it. Films that make us think about important issues are important. Well done.
The demise of his beloved spouse and companion of many years left the old man grieving and alone in the middle of nowhere. He lacked support or understanding from his somewhat estranged daughter, who lived with her family far off (most likely in a city) and would not live with him on the farm, neither would she look after him if he no longer could. Although tied to his land and independent thus far, he faced the grim prospect of being sent away to a distant nursing home full of strangers instead. The winter was approaching fast. He must have felt like having lost the meaning of his life, or he abhorred what his life’s continuation would likely look and feel like, thus he decided to follow his wife. It is a moving and saddening and raw depiction of one man’s end of life that is ugly, and yet romantic and (for that man) inevitable under given circumstances.
Wow!
What a film.
I live on a farm (chop a lot of wood) and recently lost my wife. I can totally relate to this film.
Also, while I would not do it similar thoughts like the final scene have entered my mind and that was prior to viewing the movie. The posters that call it a nothing film are fortunate not to have had the experience losing a spouse. I hope they never have to personally understand the full significance of this film.