Beautiful, rugged scenery in Iceland, a fairy tale that's every bit as dark as it is magical, and 21-year-old Björk, just before her Sugarcubes days - there's a lot to love about this film. As the story evolves we see that the supernatural witchcraft some women have been stoned and burned for is real, with one sister using it to seduce a widower and to try to handle his son's resentment of her, and the other (Björk) seeing visions of their own dead mother and messages in animal behavior. The film references other bits of folklore involving trolls and birds, and while the main story is based on Grimms' Fairy Tales, it feels very Icelandic in the way the harsh, barren world is alive with hidden mysticism. In that way, it seems to reflect the culture as much as the novels of Halldór Laxness do. The small cast is strong and the black and white cinematography is stunning. Really, just a lovely little film from Nietzchka Keene.

Their mother is killed for being a witch, so the sisters flee to a bleak farmstead composed entirely of scree. Bryndis Petra Bragadóttir. casts a spell on farmer Valdimar Örn Flygenring to make him fall in love with her, while Björk holds conversations with their mother to bring in her fans.

I don't know how they eat on a farm without anything but stone on the place, but there are sheepskins everywhere, this being Iceland and all. This movie version of a tale from the Brothers Grimm is told with an underacted air, but the black-and-white camerawork of Randolph Sellars is bleak and beautiful.

Margit (Björk) and older sister Katla leave their home after their mother is stoned to death for witchcraft. Katla casts a love spell on farmer Jóhann. Jóhann is helplessly spellbound but his son Jónas refuses to accept her.

It's black and white. It's Icelandic. It's brooding. There is no pale-faced death playing chess but there is some weirder stuff. I don't know what the black hole is meant to be. The movie misses an opportunity to start with a more visceral intensity by showing the stoning and the sisters being chased by the angry villagers. Of course, I stuck with this mostly for Björk. She has an intriguing charisma although her acting has limitations. This is what one can expect from an Icelandic black and white movie about death and witchcraft.