Heartstone Trailer: Two Pre-Teens Bond In A Small Icelandic Village

The new film “Heartstone” follows Thor (Baldur Einarsson) and Christian (Blær Hinriksson), two pre-teen best friends who live in a small village in rural Iceland. They both have rough home lives — Thor suffers from absentee parenting and Christian has a drunk and abusive father — but the two find refuge in each other and their time spent loitering in the neighborhood, avoiding bullies, and hanging around the local diner. But when the two strike up romantic relationships with girls, it threatens to completely destroy their relationship. The film will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival next week. Watch the trailer below and check out the poster as well.

It is the directorial debut from Icelandic director Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson. He has previously directed the short films “Whale Valley” and “Ártún.” “Heartstone” is not the only Icelandic film at TIFF this year. The other one is Baltasar Kormákur’s “The Oath,” a domestic thriller about a father who tries to pull his daughter out of a nasty spiral.

“Heartstone” recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It won the Queer Lion award and was named the second favorite film of the Venice Days competition. It will also screen at the Toronto International Film Festival for the public on September 13th, 15th, and 16th.