Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir’s first feature film The Swan, based on the acclaimed novel by Guðbergur Bergsson, is an elegant coming-of-age story that beautifully captures the stunning Icelandic countryside.

The film which world premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2018 Santa Barbara International Film Festival will open in theaters on August 10th in New York at Village East, and on August 17th in Los Angeles at Laemmle Royal.

In contemporary rural Iceland, a wayward 9-year old girl, Sól, is sent to distant countryside relatives for a summer to work and to mature. Nature seems endless there, the animals soulful but the people harsh. All except the mysterious farmhand Jón, who – as herself – likes words better than people.

But the farmers’ daughter Ásta has a claim on Jón as well, and soon Sól becomes entangled in a drama she hardly can grasp. This summer marks Sól’s rite of passage into the murky waters of adulthood, and the wild nature in us all.