Noi the Albino

"Nói would like to be loved. Nói would like to become rich. Nói would like to escape to Hawaii."

2003 1h 30m IS

👍

7.0

SOLID

★7.0TMDB · 110

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

17 year old Nói drifts through life on a remote fjord in Iceland. In winter, the fjord is cut off from the outside world, surrounded by ominous mountains and buried under a shroud of snow. Nói dreams of escaping from this white-walled prison with Íris, a city girl who works in a local gas station. But his clumsy attempts at escape spiral out of control.

“Nói would like to be loved. Nói would like to become rich. Nói would like to escape to Hawaii.”

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Cast

Tómas Lemarquis
Nói Kristmundsson
Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson
B. Kristmundsson
Elín Hansdóttir
Íris Óskarsdóttir
Hjalti Rögnvaldsson
Óskar Halldórsson
Pétur Einarsson
Priester
Anna Friðriksdóttir
Lina

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Dagur Kári
Writers: Dagur Kári
Languages: Icelandic, French
Countries: Denmark, Germany, Iceland, United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

90 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 23 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Icelandic, French.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 4 countries: Denmark, Germany, Iceland, United Kingdom.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Dagur Kári, shot by Rasmus Videbæk. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Daniel Dencik shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Tómas Lemarquis and Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson and Elín Hansdóttir carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Dagur Kári directs. Rasmus Videbæk behind the camera. Daniel Dencik cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Denmark, Germany, Iceland, United Kingdom. Dialogue in Icelandic, French.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

190 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Released 23 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Icelandic, French.
4International production across 4 countries: Denmark, Germany, Iceland, United Kingdom.
5Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
6Directed by Dagur Kári, shot by Rasmus Videbæk. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Editor Daniel Dencik shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Tómas Lemarquis and Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson and Elín Hansdóttir carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Nói would like to be loved. Nói would like to become rich. Nói would like to escape to Hawaii.".
10IMDB entry: tt0351461 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 9 themes, including "underdog", "grandparent grandchild relationship", "gas station", "idiot".

The technical file

Cinematography: Rasmus Videbæk
Editing: Daniel Dencik
Production design: Jon Steinar Ragnarsson
Runtime: 90 min · 1h 30m
Status: Released
Original language: IS
IMDB: Noi the Albino (2003)

Awards

Dragon Award Best Nordic Film
Church of Sweden Film Award
Edda Award for Best Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Dagur Kári

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

deepkino2026-10-02
★ 7/10
Noi the Albino is a quiet, deeply melancholic portrait of a young man trapped between his dreams and the suffocating reality around him. Noi lives in a tiny, isolated town surrounded by icy mountains, where the cold landscape seems to mirror his loneliness and emotional emptiness. He carries the same conflicts, hopes, disappointments, and sense of meaninglessness that many of us experience, but his inability to find love or understanding makes his isolation even more painful. Neither his family nor his friends seem capable of recognizing the imagination, intelligence, and desire to break free that make him different from everyone around him. Beneath his awkwardness and apparent indifference lies a desperate longing for another life, one far beyond the narrow boundaries of his frozen hometown. The tragedy of Noi is that the world he dreams of seems infinitely more real and alive than the one he actually inhabits. In the film's haunting final image, he is left completely alone on the warm beach of his imagination, surrounded by palm trees and the sea he could never reach in real life. Noi the Albino ultimately becomes a poignant film about loneliness, unrealized dreams, and the painful distance between the life we are given and the life we imagine for ourselves.

Production companies