5/29/2004
the digitaldownpour movie of the week
Iceland. It's like Canada, but small and extra cold.
That and the island's sheep outnumber the people 5:1. No kidding.
Yet somehow, despite the bitter cold and ever present threat of an angry sheep takeover (seriously, they are on the verge of revolt), the country has been providing festivals around the world with some of the most unique and beautiful films for the past few years. Most never make it to theaters once the festivals end, like the minimalist, dogme-style Salt, my personal favourite from last year's Montreal World Film Festival, usually a somewhat disapointing two weeks.
Then there are the Icelandic films that actually get screened here at the few 'art-house' cinemas willing to give some foreign flick a chance instead of playing 'When Arnold met Bomb' or 'You got served: Redux' on every screen. Films like Baltasar Kormakur's '101 Reykjavik' and 'The Sea'.
The latest of these is Dagur Kari's Noi Albinoi.
Noi is 17 and bored to hell in Bolungarvik, a town of 957 inhabitants. He sleeps through his classes, breaks into museums and shoots at glaciers in his spare time. The shotgun is his grandma's, who uses it to wake him up in the morning with a nice, loud bang out his bedroom window.
The film is simple and stunning and darkly funny and really worth going to see. So just do it.
Plus, it'll help you touch up on your icelandic. And you never know when that'll come in handy. Like right now, for example.
"Eg er med ofæmi fyrir thorski." That was me telling you I'm allergic to cod, which is actually a lie. Or how bout this: "Hvad i andskotanum ertu ad gera a thakinu minu?" Eh? This time I was asking you what the hell you are doing on my roof. See what fun Iceland can be?
That and the island's sheep outnumber the people 5:1. No kidding.
Yet somehow, despite the bitter cold and ever present threat of an angry sheep takeover (seriously, they are on the verge of revolt), the country has been providing festivals around the world with some of the most unique and beautiful films for the past few years. Most never make it to theaters once the festivals end, like the minimalist, dogme-style Salt, my personal favourite from last year's Montreal World Film Festival, usually a somewhat disapointing two weeks.
Then there are the Icelandic films that actually get screened here at the few 'art-house' cinemas willing to give some foreign flick a chance instead of playing 'When Arnold met Bomb' or 'You got served: Redux' on every screen. Films like Baltasar Kormakur's '101 Reykjavik' and 'The Sea'.
The latest of these is Dagur Kari's Noi Albinoi.
Noi is 17 and bored to hell in Bolungarvik, a town of 957 inhabitants. He sleeps through his classes, breaks into museums and shoots at glaciers in his spare time. The shotgun is his grandma's, who uses it to wake him up in the morning with a nice, loud bang out his bedroom window.
The film is simple and stunning and darkly funny and really worth going to see. So just do it.
Plus, it'll help you touch up on your icelandic. And you never know when that'll come in handy. Like right now, for example.
"Eg er med ofæmi fyrir thorski." That was me telling you I'm allergic to cod, which is actually a lie. Or how bout this: "Hvad i andskotanum ertu ad gera a thakinu minu?" Eh? This time I was asking you what the hell you are doing on my roof. See what fun Iceland can be?
