# The Lava Field (2014)

> A Reykjavik detective investigating a suicide on a remote Icelandic peninsula uncovers a sinister trail and must confront his own buried secrets.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/57973

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 4
- Episode runtime: 45 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, mystery, drama
- Created by: Reynir Lyngdal
- Network: RÚV
- Cast: Arna Magnea Danks, Salome R. Gunnarsdottir, Unnur Birna Jónsdóttir, Margrét Þorgeirsdóttir, Heida Reed, Jón Páll Eyjólfsson, Ragnar Jónsson, Valur Freyr Einarsson
- TMDB rating: 6.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3655398/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: bleak, brooding, claustrophobic, tense, melancholic

## Synopsis

The Lava Field (2014) is an Icelandic national-television nordic noir miniseries created by Reynir Lyngdal and broadcast on RÚV. Across four 45-minute episodes, Reykjavik crime detective Helgi Marvin Runarsson (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson) is called to Snaefellsnes Peninsula to look into what appears to be a suicide. The case quickly turns far from simple as he follows a sinister trail of evidence through a sparsely populated coastal landscape where local residents keep their own counsel. Each step pulls him closer to his own deeply hidden secrets, and the central pressure is painfully personal: he must decide whether to turn a blind eye to murder in order to protect his daughter. The story is told as a single tightly wound investigation rather than a case-of-the-week format. Its mood is bleak, brooding and claustrophobic, with long stretches of silence, grey skies and wind-scoured stone doing as much work as the dialogue. Fans of Trapped, The Killing and The Bridge will find resonance in its slow-burn dread, its morally compromised detective and its atmosphere of quiet rural menace. Viewers who enjoy a restrained, character-driven mystery will find this a compact and absorbing watch.

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