Starring: Björk, Bryndis Petra Bragadóttir, Valdimar Örn Flygenring, Guðrún Gísladóttir, Geirlaug Sunna Þormar

Join the Future of Film is Female for a celebration of witchcraft with the 4k restoration of THE JUNIPER TREE. To make an additional $10 donation to The Future of Film is Female, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.

“Set in medieval Iceland, director Nietzchka Keene’s film has, until now, been known mostly as a celebrity curio; it’s Icelandic superstar Björk’s first on-screen performance, shot in 1986 when she was a fresh-faced twenty-one-year-old, mere months before she and a group of friends started The Sugarcubes. As Margit, Björk plays a young girl whose mother has been executed for witchcraft and now must forge a new life with her older sister, Katia (Bryndis Petra Bragadottir). Katia quickly takes control of the pair’s destiny, casting a spell to find herself a husband, Johan (Valdimar Örn Flygenring). But Johan’s son, Jonas (Geirlaug Sunna Þormar), is suspicious of Katia’s intents and fights her presence viciously while simultaneously finding himself drawn to Margit.

“Björk’s Margit is, fittingly, a visionary; her performance demonstrates the early stages of Björk’s now-familiar yet still-otherworldly charm. She gazes deeply into the fire to see what an increasingly desperate Katia cannot: the guiding spirit of their mother. Maternal relationships are the phantom backbone of the film. Jonas is young and still acutely grieving the death of his own mother; he warns Katia, ‘My mother will make you go,’ a premonition Katia takes to heart. But these are two divergent kinds of grief; while Jonas has his mother’s grave to tend to, Margit and Katia have no idea where their mother is buried. Absent such a material marker, Margit begins to see visions of her mother near their new home, following her. The spirit cannot speak, but Margit can hear her messages loud and clear.” —Dana Reinoos, BOMB Magazine