Borgríki

Structurally and thematically similar to Doug Liman's "Go" and of course "Pulp Fiction" - the template to too many multi-stranded, time-hopping urban crime dramas - City State's milieu, a drab Iceland entirely devoid of folkloric landscapes, is more original than the content. It is a tale briskly told, that trades depth for pace, and some suspension of disbelief is required for the plot to convince. However the performances- particularly Zlatko Krickic - do partly compensate for the sketchy nature of the narrative, although both British actors seem even more out of place than their characters. Ultimately the combination of fashionable verite camera-work and grim mise en scene bolted onto contrived story-telling does not quite work and a promising socio-political drama about immigration, crime and authority barely peeps through its gangland mask.