Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.08.2008, Qupperneq 8

8 | REYKJAVÍK GRAPEVINE | ISSUE 10—2008
INTERvIEW By Sigurður kjartan kriStinSSon
When I tried to catch up with him I realised he
was stationed in Denmark so a phone call would
have to do. When a female-ish voice answered
me, my first thought was that he had to be an ex-
tremely tender man. But when I began pursuing
the softy for some info on the film, I realised that
my interlocutor wasn’t Rúnar at all, but his wife.
She elaborated that he often forgot his phone at
home and said she inevitably had to deliver the
vital gadget to him, and it would be wise for me
to try again in about a half an hour. I counted the
minutes and finally after thirty minutes I called
again, and the compliant Mrs. was right after all –
the voice that answered me this time was slightly
more masculine. When Runar realised the nature
of the phone call he moved to a more secluded
area and began with telling me a little about the
plot in 2 Birds.
”2 Birds is actually a small love story, we fol-
low Óli for 12 hours who lives in a small village
out in the country in Iceland. In these 12 hours
he reaches a turning point in his life, he actually
transforms from being a boy into being a man,
and I think we all know what that means. The at-
mosphere is very realistic, at least it presents the
atmosphere I experienced while growing up in
similar village, where the main activities consist of
hanging outside a kiosk and... well that basically
covers it. The story is to a certain extent based on
my own experiences, as are all my films. When
you know the circumstances and the conflicts
your characters are going through it’s always more
real, there’s more heart in it. This film is an inde-
pendent sequel to my previous short film “The
Last Farm”, but both of them are part of a trilogy
on love yet to be finalised.”
By listening to his description I soon realised
these stories he has produced aren’t random di-
recting projects, but dear stories interrelated with
his own life, and it might be weird getting all this
great feedback, i.e. nominations and awards, for
your own personal experiences. So I continued to
ask him how this has affected him and whether
everyone has been as pleased with his success,
his schoolfellows and such?
”To me, all this attainment has been great!
I’m basically creating films about my own life and
if people are enjoying it, it’s of course fantastic.
But once you get a slight taste of success you rea-
lise not only handball fans are competitive, a lot
of people congratulate me but others don’t. We
have this thing here in Denmark, kind of a law of
equals, but the first clause in it is that you should
never repute yourself greater than others – mod-
esty is a virtue. But in fact it isn’t merely lordliness
and conceit that develops jealousy and envy, and
in class nowadays I have received a lot of com-
pliments but there is also a bunch of people who
have glowered at me.”
It is in some way understandable that some
people wish they had received the same fame
as Rúnar, considering that they are his equals of
some sort, but one must wonder what it is that dis-
tinguishes Rúnar from the others. So I ask, what is
it that makes you excel? What makes you so spe-
cial?
”It is my belief that once you get to the bot-
tom of things it is considerably easy to narrate a
good story if you are honest. If you have personal
material in your hands that you cherish it always
gets through, technical shortcomings don’t mat-
ter a bit. If there’s heart in it, it’s easy to forgive
the imperfections. And that has always been the
centre in my filmmaking, I have never looked at
technical excellence with stars in my eyes; I just
want true, realistic feelings.”
These intonations seem to have gotten Rú-
nar far, but how far is he hoping to get? What is on
your upcoming agenda?
”My 2 Birds have just begun to fly and have
the whole world ahead of them. We have been in-
vited to loads of festivals and we are also discuss-
ing distributing opportunities with several distrib-
uting companies. All in all I’d give them about two
years to fly. Other than that I have my final assign-
ment at school which I plan to start shooting in
next months, but I keep all my school assignments
separate from my personal ones, so you probably
won’t ever see them. I have also been working on
my first feature film script and my first foray into
that world will hopefully be launched in less than
two years. Finally I have my trilogy finale, which I
hope to premier at least before my feature film.”
Rúnar obviously has a lot of projects on his
hands, but it must arouse some interest that he’s
cooking up a feature film, what can be expected?
”Well, it’s similar to my other stuff, based on
me in some way, has a lot of heart in it and por-
trays characters at crossroads. I find characters on
some turning points of their lives the most excit-
ing human ordeals to film.”
And these words seem appropriate final
words, and we’ll just hope people at some turning
points of their lives make as good interlocutors as
they are film protagonists.
It isn’t common for an Icelandic
director of such young age as
Rúnar Rúnarsson to have obtained
a nomination for the prestigious
Oscar Awards, especially look-
ing at the fact the he hasn’t even
finished his film studies in Den-
mark. But indeed he has and he
didn’t stop there, for his sequel to
the short film nominated in 2004
has received similar, if not better,
feedback. Although it was only
premiered a few months ago it has
already received several awards
and nominations, including a
nomination for the respected Palm
D’Or award at the Cannes Film
Festival, among others.
tHe Story iS to a certain extent
BaSed on My own experienceS, aS
are all My filMS. wHen you know
tHe circuMStanceS and tHe
conflictS your cHaracterS are
going tHrougH it’S alwayS More
real, tHere’S More Heart in it.
The 2 Birds Have Flown
An Interview with the Academy Award Nominee Rúnar Rúnarsson
OPINION
i have recently spent some time travelling. the
nature of travel is that it takes you out of your
comfort zone – your everyday routine where
you know how and where to find the things you
need, more or less when you need them. things
like toilets.
as a rule of thumb, i try to stay away
from public restrooms, at least when i need to
do some heavy lifting. this is easy when you
are in your local settings. between home, work
and other reliable places that you have already
mapped out, access to clean toilets is not really
a pressing problem. obviously, this does not
apply in a strange city. this fact has brought
me face to face with an old problem which,
in my naiveté, i had allowed myself to ignore:
public restroom etiquette - or more accurately
- lack there of.
to me, this is quite simple. call it the cat-
egorical imperative of restroom morals, the
golden rule of the urinal even. the one simple
moral guideline to keep in mind when visit-
ing the toilet: leave the restroom the way you
would like to find it!
that means: no pissing on the floor, toi-
let seat, walls or the toilet paper; no shitting
on the toilet seat, floor and/or walls; no stuff-
ing the toilet paper in the toilet; no stuffing the
toilet, period; no stuffing the sink; no throwing
used toilet paper on the floor, the sink, or the
garbage; no leaving pads, diapers or tampons
in or around the toilet.
i have a hard time believing that anyone
would treat their toilet at home in this manner,
but for some reason, when we go into a public
restroom, it seems as if everything your mother
taught you is thrown out of the window. if we
would all follow this one simple maxim – treat a
public toilet the way you would want a guest in
your home to treat your own toilet – you would
never again have to walk into to a public rest-
room only to become nauseated by the smell
and the filth and be forced to leave again with-
out finishing your business and eventually be-
come constipated. i hate it when that happens.
the simple truth is that it is in all our in-
terest to treat public toilets better. and it would
just make travelling so much easier.
Public
Restrooms:
A Beginner’s
Guide
By Sveinn Birkir BjörnSSon
tHe one SiMple Moral guideline
to keep in Mind wHen viSiting tHe
toilet: leave tHe reStrooM tHe
way you would like to find it!
FILMOGRAPHY
The Search For Rajeev (2002)
The Last Farm (2004)
2 Birds (2008)
AWARDS
Capalbio Cinema Young People Awards (2008)
Dresden Film Festival Arte Short Film Award
(2004)
Edda Award Best Short Film (2004)
Huesca Festval Golden Danzante (2004)
Molodist Int Film Fest FIPRESCI Prize (2004)
Nordisk Panorama Short Film Award (2004)
Tehran Short Film Festival Short Film Award
(2004)
Winterthur Short Film Festival (2004)
a small love story gets big in the Film world. still From the short-Film 2 birds