‘Black Sands’ reveals Iceland’s gothic beauty in mother-daughter drama

Iceland presents another strong contender in the Nordic Noir stable.

‘Black Sands’. Source: Glassriver/All3Media International

Fifteen years after she left in her teenage years, Aníta Elínardóttir returns to her remote Icelandic hometown as a Detective Inspector in Black Sands (Svörtu sandar). As she is en route, a body is found and she is recruited to investigate, forcing her to confront the people and places she’s been avoiding for so long – not least, her mother, Elin.

As the thirty-something Elínardóttir, Aldís Amah Hamilton is revelatory. A veteran of Icelandic TV dramas, including Promises, Fangar, The Valhalla Murders and Katla, she is both the captivating protagonist and a key writer on Black Sands.

Aldís Amah Hamilton as Aníta Elínardóttir in ‘Black Sands’. Source: Glassriver/All3Media International

The eight-part crime series has been co-written by director Baldvin Zophoníasson (Trapped, Case), Ragnar Jónsson, Andri Óttarsson (Case, Thin Ice) and Hamilton.

The female body on the beach is initially identified as that of a tourist, though the ineptitude of the assigned police is enormously frustrating to Elínardóttir, who becomes emotionally invested in uncovering the story behind the tourist’s presence and death. Despite the local police insisting that reckless tourists fall from the surrounding cliffs as a matter of course – “She’s not the first photographer to fall from these cliffs,” says one – Elínardóttir is unconvinced by their lazy theories.

Black Sands, Aldís Amah Hamilton, Kolbeinn Arnbjörnsson

Aníta (Aldís Amah Hamilton) with Salómon (Kolbeinn Arnbjörnsson) in ‘Black Sands’. Source: Glassriver/All3Media International

The further she digs, the more the signs point towards a serial killer in the community. When another woman is found, injured and afraid, the likelihood that this is a pattern of attacks becomes almost certain. The second bloodied victim is her closest link to the dead woman on the beach and yet the slipshod approach of her colleagues towards interviewing those involved threatens to derail Elínardóttir’s investigation.

Also threatening her professional focus is her troubled relationship with her mother Elin. As captivating as Hamilton, Steinunn Ólina Þorsteinsdóttir proves why she was also cast in the outstanding Icelandic dramas Trapped (now streaming

at SBS On Demand

) and Case. Her barely contained rage at the stifled, stymied life she leads in this tiny, gossip-riddled town is wrought upon her face.

Black Sands, Steinunn Ólina Þorsteinsdóttir, Þór Tulinius

Steinunn Ólina Þorsteinsdóttir as Aníta’s mother Elin, with Þór Tulinius as Ragnar in ‘Black Sands’. Source: Glassriver/All3Media International

Their mother-daughter dynamic is refreshingly relatable in a world that still struggles to depict women’s relationships with one another in a truthful way. The dynamic of mothers and daughters is not clear-cut, in most cases. There are elements of jealousy, expectations that were met or failed, the furious inability to let go, the lack of nurturing or the excessive coddling, and the very rigid view that each woman has formed of the other through the lens of their relationship: a mother is a mother, not a sexual creature or a professional, nor a woman with a past. A daughter, likewise, is forever a child, owed by her parents and owing them in return.

These dynamics are unspoken, hidden like stories in the black sands. And those sands are, literally, black in Iceland. The volcanic activity results in black sediment formed by searingly hot lava floating across the beach. As it is cooled by the icy sea water, it forms the black sands that are a natural element of the South Coast of Iceland.

The black sand landscape is almost a character unto itself, in ‘Black Sands’. Source: Glassriver/All3Media International

Rather than rely on a plot that slings constant twists and gory details at viewers to keep them glued to the screen, Black Sands cleverly turns the focus onto the characters and zooms into their emotional lives. For crime fans, the whodunnit appeal is undiminished and it can be enjoyed purely on that level if desired. For drama fans, it is undeniably compelling too. It is a gothic romance, a mother-daughter family drama, and a serial killer thriller all packed into eight, concise episodes.

We are accustomed now to Sweden and Norway as noir central, but Iceland offers something otherworldly and gothic in its ethereal beauty. Partnered with a mother-daughter drama that represents a real, relatable women’s experience, this is a drama that is both aesthetically and emotionally layered and juicy.

Season one, along with the newly arrived season two, is streaming

at SBS On Demand