I have never cared more about the price of milk in Iceland: The County reviewed

You may be asking yourself: have I reached that point in lockdown where I’m watching Icelandic dramas about the price of milk? Yes, you have, is the short answer. But let me qualify that with: if you are going to watch Icelandic dramas about the price of milk, The County is a good choice. And surprisingly involving. Or, to put it another way: I have never cared more about the price of milk in Iceland and it may be I’ll never care as much about the price of milk in Iceland again. Although you never know.

Written and directed by Grimur Hakonarson, whose breakthrough film was the wonderful Rams (2015), this is set in a rural, remote part of the country amid a farming community who are just about getting by but do wear great knitwear, you can’t help but notice. One couple, Reynir (Hinrik Olafsson) and Inga (Arndis Hronn Egilsdottir), run a small dairy farm. They are up to their neck in debt to the powerful local co-operative and work ceaselessly. They haven’t had a holiday for years. Their life is their livestock and their pillow talk is, excitingly, all about when the artificial inseminator is due to visit. We like Inga from the off because even though the process of milking is now highly robotic she knows every cow by name, which has to be a measure of character, or at least it is in my book. (I love cows.) But when Reynir suddenly dies, she discovers the extent of the co-op’s bullying and corruption — what price those robotics? — and takes a stand. Can she win? And will the rest of the community support her?

This is clean and simple, a David vs Goliath story where we always know exactly what is at stake and whose side we’re on so there are no surprises here.