Icelandic Cinema Review is organised in collaboration with



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Iceland – a beautiful, mysterious and full of contrasts country on the edge of the world, yet considered a part of Europe. Despite rich and unique cultural tradition, the island made its debut in cinema relatively late, as the first domestic feature film production was presented to Icelanders only in 1949. Local film industry did not actually exist until the 1970’s, and the rest of the world heard about it for the first time only 17 years ago thanks to the Oscar nomination for the 1992 Best Foreign Language Film for Fridrik Thor Fridriksson’s Children of Nature (Börn náttúrunnar, 1991), which was also generously awarded at international festivals.

Since then, for a whole decade, Fridriksson remained the unquestioned leader of Icelandic cinema, not only by winning numerous awards for his films, but also by playing an active role in the local film production with his own production company, Icelandic Film Corporation. This self-educated filmmaker, founder of the first Icelandic movie magazine and a co-founder of Reykjavik Film Festival is still the most acclaimed director of Iceland. At Plus Camerimage 2009, a review of his work will accompany The Icelandic Cinema Review.

At the turn of the 20th and the 21st centuries,. the Golden Age of Icelandic Cinema began. Year 2000 brought a cult film 101 Reykjavik (dir. Baltasar Kormakur), depicting a vivid image of contemporary Iceland in the time of globalization, yet ironically playing with traditional motives of domestic filmic and literary heritage. The following years have presented many well-received films of young directors, such as Noi the Albino (Noi Albinoi, 2003) by Dagur Kari, Children (Börn, 2006) and Parents (Foreldrar, 2007) by Ragnar Bragason or Jar City (Mýrin, 2007) and White Night Wedding (Brúðguminn, 2008) by Baltasar Kormakur. All these titles will be screened during the Icelandic Cinema Review at this year’s edition of Plus Camerimage.

The contemporary richness, international recognition and dynamic development of Icelandic cinema are founded on the young but strong filmic tradition, which can serve as a reference point and polemic for new filmmakers, who often work side by side with the living legends of the Icelandic history of cinema. Revisiting the achievements of this cinema should be especially interesting now, when most promising filmmakers of Iceland are trying to find their way in Hollywood.


101 REYKJAVIK

director: Baltasar Kormakur
cinematographer: Peter Steuger
year: 2000

Thirty-year-old Hlynur still lives with his mother and spends his days drinking, watching porn and surfing the net while living off unemployment checks. His mother's Spanish flamenco teacher, Lola, moves in with them for Christmas. On New Year’s Eve, while his mother is away, Hlynur finds out Lola is a lesbian, nevertheless he ends up having sex with her. He soon finds out that Lola and his mother are sharing more than a house. Eventually, he must find out where he fits into the puzzle, and how to live life less selfishly.



CHILDREN (Börn)

director: Ragnar Bragason
cinematographer: Bergsteinn Bjorgulfsson
year: 2006

The first part of a twin feature by Ragnar Bragason focusing on social underdogs. The lives of an underworld thug, a single mum with four kids, and a schizophrenic entwine in a powerful symphony of redemption and revenge. Karaitas is struggling to take care of her children with her ex-husband trying to have custody of their kids. Garðar, who is struggling to cut off from his criminal past, decides it´s time to rebuild a relationship with his son. But, when he tries to introduce all the changes into his life, he realizes it can be harder than he thinks.



JAR CITY (Mýrin)

director: Baltasar Kormakur
cinematographer: Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson
year: 2006

An elderly man is found murdered in his basement flat. Inspector Erlendur and his crew don´t have much to go by in the investigation, but a photograph of a young girl´s grave gives them a lead. They discover that many years ago the victim was accused, though not convicted, of horrible crimes. Did the old man´s past come back to haunt him? As Erlendur reopens this very old case, he follows a trail of unusual forensic evidence, uncovering secrets that are much larger than the murder of one old man – with clues knit into the genetic bloodline of the entire country.



NOI THE ALBINO (Noi Albinoi)

director: Dagur Kari
cinematographer: Rasmus Videbæk
year: 2003

Nói is a 17-year old living in an unnamed remote fishing village in western Iceland with his eccentric grandmother. He drifts through life in a remote fjord. In the winter, the fjord is completely cut off from the outside world, encircled by terrifying mountains covered with a thick layer of snow. Noi dreams of escaping from this white prison, together with Iris, a city girl who works at the local filling station. But Noi's clumsy attempts to escape don't get him anywhere, and everything is getting out of hand.



PARENTS (Foreldrar)

director: Ragnar Bragason
cinematographer: Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson
year: 2007

Parents is an independent second part of a diptych by Ragnar Bragason after Children. Both films were made by the director in collaboration with a theatre group Vesturport, using improvisation methods similar to the ones used by such directors as Mike Leigh and John Cassavetes. It is an unsentimental dramatic study of parenthood in its potential for fulfillment, suffering and self-discovery.



WHITE NIGHT WEDDING (Brúðguminn)

director: Baltasar Kormakur
cinematographer: Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson
year: 2008

Jon, a middle-aged professor, is about to get re-married. This time to a young woman, half his age. There are those who oppose to the marriage, including his future parents-in-law. When the guests start flocking to the island where the marriage is to be held, the groom starts getting cold feet. His mind goes back to the year before, when he moved to the island with his first wife. Even though the film is very much a contemporary film, set in Iceland, the characters are inspired by Anton Chekhov’s Ivanov.



FRIDRIK THOR FRIDRIKSSON REVIEW



ANGELS OF THE UNIVERSE (Englar alheimsins)

cinematographer: Harald Paulgaard
year: 2000

Angels of the Universe portrays the life of Paul who suffers from schizophrenia and the way people react to his illness. At first, we see him with his family, childhood friends, and the girl that he loves, and then we follow him into the psychiatric hospital. There we meet his colourful companions Óli Beatle, who believes he has written all the Beatles’ songs and sent them to the group as telepathic messages; the sophisticated and erudite Viktor, who sometimes suddenly turns into Hitler; and Peter, Paul’s room-mate, who has freaked out on drugs and is under the impression he wrote a doctorate about Schiller at a Chinese university.



CHILDREN OF NATURE (Börn náttúrunnar)

cinematographer: Ari Kristinsson
year:1991

An old man who lives by himself decides to give up farming and move to the city, where he has a difficcult time settling in and ends up in an old people's home. There he meets an old flame who dreams of being buried on the farm where she grew up, which has now been deserted for years. One night they flee together in search of adventure.





COLD FEVER (Á köldum klaka)

cinematographer: Ari Kristinsson
year: 1995



Hirata finds himself cancelling his vacation plans to Hawaii when his grandfather reminds him of his duty to his parents. Seven years earlier, Hirata's parents had been killed in an accident in Iceland and Japanese tradition holds that their souls will not be at ease until the proper ceremonies have been performed. Thus, Hirata sets out on a journey in quest of the river where his parents perished. Along the way, in this Icelandic-Japanese road movie, he encounters many difficulties, tough situations, and odd people in the land of fire and ice. Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's vision infuses Iceland's stark and beautiful landscape with haunting spirituality.



DEVIL’S ISLAND (Djöflaeyjan)

cinematographer: Ari Kristinsson
year: 1996

Devils' Island takes place in Reykjavik in the years following World War Two. The British and American occupation army had left their bunkers behind. They became homes to hundreds of lower-class people who were pouring into the capital during those years. Devils' Island tells a story of the people in the bunkers who hard as they struggle with everyday life, they experience amusing situations.





FALCONS (Fálkar)

cinematographer: Harald Paulgaard
year: 2002

Simon, a mysterious man with a past, returns to Iceland with the intention of ending his no good life. Before he can complete his task, he meets a young woman Dua who, he believes, might be his daughter. When she gets into trouble with the Police, Simon represses his death wish and decides to help her out. Together they flee to the city of Hamburg smuggling what used to be the greatest export of the Vikings, an Icelandic falcon...





MOVIE DAYS (Biodagar)

cinematographer: Ari Kristinsson
year: 1994

A funny tale of Thomas, a boy coming of age, discovering Russian spies, Icelandic ghosts, Roy Rogers, The Crawling Hand, Adolf Hitler, sheep-eating hermits, Jesus Christ, the US Army, Iceland’s only Hollywood star, great storytellers, and funerals.






NICELAND (POPULATION. 1.000.002) (Næsland)

cinematographer: Morten Søborg
year: 2004

Jed and Chloe are in their early twenties, in love, and mentally handicapped. When Jed accidentally causes the death of Chloe's cat, she retreats into silence and loses her will to live. Being convinced that there must be something else in life to give it meaning, something that will help revive Chloe's spirit, Jed sets out to find it.





SCREENINGS TIMES AND DATES

101 REYKJAVIK
Charlie cinema, 28 Nov, 19:45

CHILDREN
Charlie cinema, 03 Dec, 15:45

JAR CITY
Charlie cinema, 04 Dec, 15:45

NOI THE ALBINO
Charlie cinema, 30 Nov, 22:00

PARENTS
Charlie cinema, 02 Dec, 22:00

WHITE NIGHT WEDDING
Charlie cinema, 03 Dec, 13:45


Fridrik Thor Fridriksson Retrospective


ANGELS OF THE UNIVERSE
Charlie cinema, 01 Dec, 13:45

CHILDREN OF NATURE
Charlie cinema, 30 Nov, 15:45

COLD FEVER
Charlie cinema, 02 Dec, 15:45

DEVIL'S ISLAND
Charlie cinema, 30 Nov, 13:45

FALCONS
Charlie cinema, 29 Nov, 15:45

MOVIE DAYS
Charlie cinema, 01 Dec, 15:45

NICELAND
Charlie cinema, 05 Dec, 16:00