Peter Michalski--Cold Fever

In the movie, Cold Fever, all four axioms are illustrated during the main characters journey through Iceland. The reason why he was traveling across the cold desolate landmass was to go to a river and perform a ceremonial ritual for his dead parents that died there in an accident. Given that the purpose of the journey is to perform a religious ceremony the main character with have spiritual encounters even though he has no care for such things. At first the main character even refused to go on the trip but finally decided to go, but even then only went out of duty rather than for the purpose.
The first axiom, sacred place is not chosen, it chooses, is encountered in sever parts of the film.
A notable part is when the main character takes a left down a road with a huge sign that says “Warning! Does anyone know you’re going this way?” After a bit of driving the main characters car stalls and stops without warning at the top of a hill. The movie then cuts to him waking up in his car and seeing a little girl standing outside. He gets out of his car and approaches the girl, he stops a few feet away and suddenly the girl gives out a piercing screech that causes rocks to fall loose and makes a geyser erupt. Along with those the main characters car start to run again. The girl who disappears after that represents one of the fairies that lives in the rocks, she came in his time of need to help him. That place will always be with him from then on, the combination of the geyser with the scenery and the experience as a whole. The main character did not choose to stop there, if it where up to him he would have kept going to reach his destination. Instead his car forced him to stop because it stalled allowing him to witness the fairy.
The second axiom, sacred place is ordinary place, ritually made extraordinary is depicted near the end, when the main character finally arrives to the river near where his parents died. That place represents the second axiom because there was nothing special about that place until his parent’s accident happened and they died there. Their dyeing there made him travel all the way there learning and experiencing along the way. When he finally reached the river he had changed and the ritual he preformed there will leave a permanent mark and always be special to him.
The third axiom, sacred place can be tred upon without being entered, can be seen all over the movie. The main character is on a spiritually journey but is not spiritual himself. He is confronted with many places that represent sacred place but he is so focused on doing what he came to do he doesn’t even realize what they are. For example when the taxi driver pulls over and goes into the barn the main character gets impatient and goes to see where he went. When he looks through the widow he sees a group of people reenacting the birth of Jesus Christ. When the main character realizes what the people are doing, he goes back to the taxi grab his luggage and continues down the road on his own.
The fourth and last axiom is the impulse of sacred place is both, centripetal and centrifugal, local and universal. This is shown in the beginning of the movie as well as the end when his grandfather first asks him to travel to Iceland to perform the rituals. His grandfather knew how important the ritual was and put forth the effort to get him to go. When the main character gets to Iceland and almost to the river he becomes stuck. Everyone says that there is no one to get there during the winter and he has to wait for spring. Everyone says that except for one man who also knows how important the ritual is and goes the extra mile to help him. Half way across the world in two different countries two men both know the importance of the journey and help the main character to accomplish it.