SUKKWAN ISLAND (also known as MY FATHER’S ISLAND) is a slow devastation. The conclusion seems inevitable from the outset but, like the young man in the film, we are dragged along for the experience as director Vladimir de Fontenay shows the raw boundaries of both nature and a father-son relationship. The film is anchored by a strong performance from Swann Arlaud who delivers a complex character destroyed by hubris and toxic masculinity.

Adapted from a novella by David Vann (which you should avoid looking up beforehand if you intend to see the film), SUKKWAN ISLAND is the story of a father and son who go out into the wilderness together. When Tom (Swann Arlaud) contacts his estranged wife (Tuppence Middleton) to arrange a year-long wilderness retreat with their son (Woody Norman), she is initially understandably sceptical. Roy’s desire to spend time with his father wins out and the two travel to an isolated Finnish island where they will live in a small cabin without any other people on the island, fishing and hunting for their survival for an entire year.

“Arlaud plays that supporting role wonderfully, carefully balancing Tom’s obvious charm (and impeccable hair) against the more hidden and sometimes darker parts of his personality.”

For the opening section of the film, Roy’s father, Tom, is a mysterious figure: much discussed and alluded to but not seen. This builds a sense of enigma and mystique around the absent father until he’s eventually revealed. Swann Arlaud previously played a memorable supporting role in ANATOMY OF A FALL and, though his role is more central in this film, he’s still largely supporting the journey of the Roy character. Arlaud plays that supporting role wonderfully, carefully balancing Tom’s obvious charm (and impeccable hair) against the more hidden and sometimes darker parts of his personality. As the two settle into their new life on the island, we get hints of disturbing undercurrents running through Tom – he mentions eating meat like “real men”, he reads a survival book whose cover suggests he’s maybe less of a survivalist and more of a fantasist. It soon becomes clear that Tom is running away from society and that he’s dragged Roy along with him. But is there something else that he’s running from?

“Norman excels at portraying the conflict in Roy as he continues to admire Tom living “la vie sauvage” even as he comes to see his father as a fallible man just like any other.”

Despite the challenges of day-to-day survival, the men settle into a pleasant routine: chopping wood, hunting deer, wild swimming in the frigid lake. Woody Norman delivers a solid performance as Roy, anchoring the emotional heart of the film as a young man who wants to get to know his father. Norman excels at portraying the conflict in Roy as he continues to admire Tom living “la vie sauvage” even as he comes to see his father as a fallible man just like any other. Norman carries himself with the reticence of a teenage boy which subtly contrasts with Arlaud’s more confident and, in some ways, dominating presence. Even the beautiful moments of them connecting as men by talking about women and sex and love under the midnight sun of a Finnish summer contain a glimmer of some darker strand of toxic masculinity.

However as the harsh Finnish winter approaches, cracks appear and widen. The film deliberately takes its time reaching a point that feels inevitable from the start and so it’s all the more devastating when their adventure gradually begins to turn from Walden towards Lord of the Flies. Tom’s idea of wilderness adventure comes to seem naive as their lives are suddenly pivoted towards the backbreaking labour of chopping wood in the cold every day and fishing in frozen waters to find the sustenance to survive. De Fontenay stretches Roy and Tom’s relationship beyond its breaking point but never loses his sympathetic eye towards both characters. There is hubris and there is a sense of dangerous masculinity, but the film never forgets that these are two humans trying their best to survive and care for one another.