The drama by Swedish director Carlsson, which opened the Göteborg Film Festival to great acclaim, is emotional landscape cinema at its finest. Often compared to the work of American auteur Kelly Reichardt, this quietly compelling story ranks among the strongest films to emerge from Northern Europe this year.

Olof is a man who would rather let the nature around him speak. Introverted, always hard at work and tending to his bees, he tries not to dwell on the loss of his wife. To support his family, Olof makes a living harvesting honey, and drives a snowplough in wintertime. His teenage daughter, Lise, longs to break free from life in a village on the Swedish-Norwegian border. “He who’s happy remains,” says Olof. Although he tries to provide his daughter with everything she wants, their relationship unfolds in a silence further deepened by Olof’s diagnosis.

Yes, the truth can sting bitterly – something Swedish filmmaker Carlsson knows all too well, as do the characters in his feature-length debut, whose lives take on vivid, fully fleshed-out dimensions on screen. Working with lead actor Adam Lundgren, who also co-wrote the screenplay, Carlsson has crafted a delicate portrait of the male psyche – an anti-macho film that offers evocative imagery while occasionally reminding you of that good old lump in your throat. The film is based on true events, with the director citing Peter Fonda’s character Ulysses in Ulee’s Gold (1997) as an inspiration for this emotionally charged drama. Carlsson deliberately plays with silence as one of the protagonists of the film, subtly underscoring how much we are capable of leaving unsaid to protect our loved ones.