Araluen Arts Centre: 
The Love That Remains (2025)
The brilliant – and frequently hilarious – new film from award-winning writer/director Hlynur Pálmason (Godland, A White, White Day), THE LOVE THAT REMAINS tenderly captures a year in the life of a family of five, as the parents navigate their separation.
Though seemingly in the throes of a splitting up, Anna (Saga Garðarsdóttir) and Magnus (Sverrir Gudnason) still spend time together for the sake of their three children, Ída and twins Þorgils and Grímur (played, remarkably, by the three real-life children of director Pálmason).
Magnus works at sea, infrequently returning to land, where he asserts himself as the patriarch with limited efficacy. Anna is an artist whose vast and impressive works fail to receive suitable recognition. In their interactions, whilst there's sufficient indication of why the separation is happening, there's also the familiarity of a long-held love and a glimmer of a chance of reconciliation...
Often taking playful and laugh-out-loud diversions, Pálmason's deeply felt film conveys so much love for its characters and the gorgeous Icelandic environment, delivering a soulful look at the importance of family and shared memories amidst the changing seasons.
Special mention must also be made of the incredible performance of the director’s sheepdog, Panda, who joined The Artist’s Uggie and Anatomy Of A Fall’s Messi as winner of the prestigious Palme d’Og award at Cannes.
Gallery
Astoundingly lovely. A deeply human film that sings like an ode to family life's lumps and bumps.
Steven A. Russell | THE BIG ISSUE
Exquisitely tender. Spiralling into surrealism as ordered lives and minds unravel, Pálmason’s fourth feature is an album of achingly felt, morbidly funny and increasingly haywire scenes from a marriage. Wise and lyrical, “The Love That Remains” thrives on its profound understanding of each family’s individual oddness, and the incremental confusion with which growing children regard their parents, as their elders grow smaller and more flawed by the day.
Guy Lodge | VARIETY
Overflowing with memorable meditations, blunt-but-heartfelt exchanges, and piercing affection for its people. Occupies the rarified air of a movie that has it all: heartwarming joy, heartwrenching pain, comedy that charms so invasively it gives chills of envy, meditation, action, all shapes and sizes of duration and composition. It’s like a life fully lived—Pálmason’s best film yet.
Luke Hicks | THE FILM STAGE
Perfectly crafted. This instantly joins the ranks with 'Marriage Story' as one of THE best break-up films EVER made. For real. Every single shot is brilliant. The score, the lightness of it all, the humour, the honesty, the kids, the dog, everything about it is pure bliss. So uplifting & entertaining. I walked out of this film happier than I did when it started – how did Pálmason do that?
Alex Billington | FIRST SHOWING
An unexpectedly playful and romantic film that leaves your heart full to the brim. Captures the adventure, wonder and magic of everyday moments and the intimacy we share with our families.
Emily Ruuskanen | FAR OUT
Depicted with utmost affection and playfulness. Pálmason manufactures rich, impressionistic tapestries of people in places, constructed entirely from banal actions and small miracles of movement. It's a film that never stops surprising. Pálmason will go down as one of his generation’s purest filmmakers.
Blake Williams | FILMMAKER MAGAZINE
Intriguingly depicted... An Icelandic directorial force who will invite you into his home, and at times pull the rug from right under your feet. But never so that it hurts; quite the contrary, in fact.
Jan Lumhloldt | CINEUROPA
Gorgeous, quirky and melancholy. Across a running time tied to the shifting seasons, pocked by images of breathtaking beauty, Pálmason is after a feeling that only patient observance yields: a lasting reality about the passing of relationships. Pálmason is a gifted craftsman. This is a delicate, confidently imagined fiction made with the eyes of a naturalist, the heart of a believer in family, and a sensibility with room for both the Pythonesque and the Lynchian.
Robert Abele | LOS ANGELES TIMES
WINNER (x7!) - 2026 ICELANDIC FILM AWARDS - Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Lead Actress, Lead Actor & Supp. Actress
OFFICIAL SELECTION (ICELAND) - 2026 ACADEMY AWARDS - Best International Feature
OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2025 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL (Premiere)
OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2025 SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL (Official Competition)
OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2025 NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2025 MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (Headliners)
OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2025 TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2025 NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL
OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2025 BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL
Dates
Times
7pm
Duration
109 minutes
Interval
None
Prices
Adult
$17.00
Concession
$14.00
2026 Araluen Member
$14.00
2026 Araluen Member Concession
$11.00
Sign up to become a 2026 Araluen Member here!
Genre
Location
Extra information
Online ticketing is available up until one hour prior to the performance.
For ticket purchases after this time, please visit the Araluen Box Office or call us on (08) 8951 1122.
Accessibility
Rating
Booking Fee
For this event, a one-off service fee of $2.50 per transaction applies on all purchases online. All ticket prices include GST.
