Icelandic filmmaker Dagur Kari makes an impressive transition from shorts to features with "Noi" (aka "Noi the Albino"), a playfully quirky and, ultimately, unexpectedly affecting portrait of a 17-year-old slacker determined to escape the snow-shrouded confines of the isolated fjord that his family calls home. The winner of a slew of international festival awards, Iceland's official best foreign-language Oscar submission should generate some warm response on the domestic specialty front, while establishing Kari as a filmmaker of promise. Stuck in an icy rut, hairless, 17-year-old Noi (effectively played by Tomas Lemarquis) bides his time in his remote village by skipping a lot of school (leaving a hand-held tape recorder on his desk in his absence), rigging slot machines for drink money or hanging out with his Elvis-crooning, cab-driving dad (Throstur Leo Gunnarsson).

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