Icelandic

  • Hlynur Palmason – Hvítur, hvítur dagur AKA A White, White Day (2019)

    2011-2020DramaHlynur PalmasonIceland

    Quote:
    An off duty police begins to suspect a local man for having had an affair with his recently dead wife. Gradually his obsession for finding out the truth accumulates and inevitably begins to endanger himself and his loved ones.Read More »

  • Ragnar Bragason – Foreldrar AKA Parents (2007)

    2001-2010ArthouseIcelandRagnar Bragason

    Foreldrar was the big winner at the Eddas ceremony (the yearly Icelandic film prize) winning a total of six Eddas.

    In modern day Reykjavik, dark secrets come to light when an unhappy dentist, a lovelorn businessman and a young mother fleeing her troubled past meet by chance.

    Inspired by the largely improvisational, collaborative methods of Jean-Luc Godard, John Cassavetes and Mike Leigh. In conjunction with actors from the Icelandic theatrical troupe Vesturport, who based their characters on real people, director Ragnar Bragason has produced an unsentimental dramatic study of parenthood in all its potential for fulfillment, suffering and self-discovery.Read More »

  • Kristín Jóhannesdóttir – Glerbrot AKA Broken Glass (1988)

    1981-1990ExploitationHorrorIcelandKristín Jóhannesdóttir

    Here we have a true rarity, an Icelandic WIP exploitation horror love story. Teenage girl (played by the singer Björk at the time when she was on the brink of becoming a world famous musician) is taken against her will from her dysfunctional home by the authorities and moved to an isolated and strict religious institution in the countryside where she and other girls at her age are kept imprisoned and harassed sexually. The film is loosely inspired by a true case involving the Salvation Army that became very controversial in the country two decades earlier. The film score is by Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, the current Chieftain of the Asa Faith Society in Iceland.Read More »

  • Óskar Jónasson – Sódóma Reykjavík AKA Remote Control (1992)

    1991-2000ComedyCrimeIcelandÓskar Jónasson

    Since his mother wants to watch TV, Axel, a young auto-mechanic, must recover her remote control, accidentally taken by his punk sister Maja. During his quest, he becomes involved in the conflict between Moli, the liquor smuggler, and Aggi, a night club owner who wants to be Iceland’s first mafia boss.Read More »

  • Sólveig Anspach – Skrapp út AKA Back Soon (2008)

    2001-2010ComedyIcelandSólveig Anspach

    Quote:
    Back Soon is a shift from the serious tone of Solveig Anspach’s previous films to something much more light-hearted. In this off-the-wall comedy, Anna Hallgrimsdottir, in her late thirties, is undergoing an existential crisis. She decides to quit her job, sell her business to the highest bidder, and leave with her two sons… but being a dope dealer, the biggest supplier on the island, complicates things somewhat. Back Soon, an offbeat Scandinavian farce, full of imaginative flights of fancy, reveals a whole new aspect to Solveig Anspach. Following a documentary made in 2001, this is her first fiction feature, a co-production with Iceland, where it was filmed.Read More »

  • Isold Uggadottir – Andið eðlilega AKA And Breathe Normally (2018)

    2011-2020DramaIcelandIsold Uggadottir

    Two women’s lives will intersect while trapped in circumstances unforeseen. Between a struggling Icelandic mother and an asylum seeker from Guinea-Bissau, a delicate bond will form as both strategize to get their lives back on track.Read More »

  • Olafur Sveinsson – Hlemmur AKA Last Stop (2002)

    2001-2010ArthouseDocumentaryIcelandOlafur Sveinsson

    Synopsis:
    Icelandic filmmaker Olafur Sveinsson takes on the challenge of documenting one of his native country’s social ills by focusing on the homeless people taking shelter in the capital city of Reykjavik’s main bus terminal in his 2002 sociological documentary Hlemmur (Last Stop). Most of the people Sveinsson interviewed were either mentally handicapped or grappling with some sort of debilitating addiction, both conditions which obviously had tremendously negative impacts on the subjects’ personal lives and resulted in their social marginalization. Read More »

  • Bradley Rust Gray – Salt (2003)

    2001-2010Bradley Rust GrayDramaIcelandRomance

    A young girl from a tiny fishing village in a remote corner of Iceland falls in love with her sister’s boyfriend. After realizing they cannot be together she finds a magical way to escape her isolated world.Read More »

  • Baltasar Kormákur – Eiðurinn AKA The Oath (2016)

    2011-2020Baltasar KormákurCrimeIcelandThriller

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    From cinemaperspective.com
    When filmmakers possess a signature style that can be identified across their body of work, they are sometimes referred to as an auteur of cinema. It’s a term that might get banded around too frequently, but one that is often used when discussing Icelandic visionary Baltasar Kormákur. His latest feature is crime thriller The Oath, a personal project which he amazingly produces, directs, co-writes and stars in. The story follows family man heart surgeon Finnur (Kormákur) who tries to rescue his daughter Anna (Hera Hilmar) from her thuggish boyfriend Óttar (Gísli Örn Garðarsson) when she becomes entangled in his dangerous, criminal lifestyle.Read More »

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