Pitchfork

Last summer, Sigur Rós staged a series of free, mostly unannounced concerts in their native Iceland, untangling cables and setting up gear in abandoned herring factories, small town parks, modest coffee shops, and tiny community halls. The band huddled together to beam epic rock songs into the western fjords, trekking deep into the Asbyrgi canyon to ping tracks off the trunks of birch and willow trees, sheepishly (and literally) offering their music back to the land which spawned it.

Shot by director Dean DeBlois (a Canadian animator best known for co-directing Lilo and Stitch), the film Heima (which translates loosely to "at home") chronicles the entire tour, interspersing live footage with band interviews, acoustic performances, and mesmerizing reaction shots from local families who wandered outside to see what was happening.

Visually, Heima is stupidly gorgeous; DeBlois shoots like a photographer, hovering, still and steady, before Iceland's wet, lunar landscapes, clearly infatuated with the country's strange and violent countryside. Watching, it's hard to believe it's all real: blonde, fair-skinned children sail blood-red kites, everyone is wearing thick wool sweaters, fresh water runs free and fast through unspoiled valleys, and Sigur Rós slam their guitars in unison, while vocalist Jón Por ("Jónsi") Birgisson howls at the heavens, eyes squeezed shut, shoulders high.

It's difficult to describe Sigur Rós's celestial swells without reaching for grand, cinematic descriptors, and the band's music is almost comically well-suited for DeBlois' high-def photography. And while most music documentaries-- tour documentaries, especially-- feel contrived or inconsequential, Heima is a stunning record of an extraordinary endeavor: Don't be surprised if you stumble out of the theater with tear-striped cheeks, dreaming of rotten shark and glaciers.

As previously reported, Heima will be released on DVD on November 6 in the U.S. via XL and the day before in the UK on EMI. It is accompanied by the double CD Hvarf/Heim.