Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2009, Page 70

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DREAMS OF CARS ON AN ISLAND
Also, most road movies involve marginalized
characters without bright future prospects.
The Faroese road movie Bye Bye Blue Bird
(1999) is interesting, as it represents two girls
on the edge from manifold angles: between
childhood and adulthood, between local
and global community, between tradition
and (late) modernity. The sky-blue Ford
Taunus, transporting the girls through the
islands, couples these contrasting dimen-
sions.
"My idea oj a piece of sculpture is a road.
That is, a road doesn't reueal itself at any
particular point or from any particular
point. Roads appear and disappear. We
either have to trauel on them or beside
them. But we don't have a single point of
viewfor a road at all, except a moving one,
moving along it" (Carl Andre in Moran,
2009)
Accidents and tragedies
Most young people in the Faroe Islands have
had direct or indirect experiences of severe
traffic accidents. Girls and boys, if not
themselves victims, have friends or relatives
that have been involved in accidents on the
roads. The Faroe Islands, a transparent small-
scale society with traditional kinship
relations, are jokingly regarded as 'one big
family'. Anyway, this is more than just a
comic statement. When the mortal accident
occurs, the worst horror for the bereaved,
the whole village or town is in mourning
(Gaini, 2009). The loss of a son or a daughter
is affecting the whole society, because the
Faroe Islands are sensitive and unarmed in
relation to many kinds of disasters. In past
centuries whole village communities could
vanish when a local boat disappeared in
stormy waters. The Faroe Islands have been a
natural risk society from the beginning.
Young people chat about the accidents,
about the victims and about infamous risky
drivers that are still riding. They tell stories,
give advice and warnings, as well as boast of
personal death-defying episodes on the
roads. Some details are subject to exag-
geration in dramatic chronicles that often
portray the car crash as the result of heroic
behaviour. A 15-year-old female informant
told me a shocking story:
"Once we drove in a car through the
tunnel to Leirvík [village]. We were 5
persons in the car; two boys and three
girls. We drove at about 790 km/h until we
came to the curve in the tunnel; then the
driver said with only one finger on the
wheel: - if I now lose control, then it is just
splash and tomorrow the death notices
will be read on the radio"
Many of the tragic accidents that have killed
boys and girls through the years happened
in the early hours of the day when young
people are on their way back home from
parties and night clubs. Drivers are often very
tired, affected by mixed feelings and distrac-
ted by their chatty friends on the backseat.
The normally easy drive to the home village
turns out to be a painful challenge with
many pitfalls. Driving with breakneck speed
when intoxicated is a suicidal act that has
resulted in carnage on mountain roads
(Gaini, 2009). The deadly collisions shake
society's fabric and traumatize friends and
relatives. Some of the close friends of the
deceased continue, unaffected, their risk