Reykjavík Grapevine - 17.06.2011, Blaðsíða 33

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33
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 8 — 2011
ish him and we remember that when
we see him at his best, which he was
at times during the sometimes flawed
but often fascinating Q&A session. He
had been invited because he won the
honorary award, which he has amply
earned. It must be added that awarding
him was a somewhat brilliant discovery
by the Skjaldborg organisers—Iceland-
ers often think of him as simply ‘an en-
tertainer’, but many fail to realise that
he's also one of our most prolific docu-
mentarians.
His documentaries usually capture
Iceland's harshest secrets. Deserted
and dangerous places in the middle
of nowhere, yes, but also people that
time forgot. Hermits to you and me, but
people to Ómar. Sometimes funny and
wise, but more often just lonely people
living outside of time, in rural, forgotten
about places.
A NEW óMAR RAGNARSSON
Towards those people Ómar was a
humble filmmaker. And he also proved
to be humble and generous towards
his fellow filmmakers. Because, a funny
thing happened: the opening film also
won the audience award at the end of
the festival. It's called ‘Jón og séra Jón
(“John and Reverend John”) and might
well have been made by Ómar himself.
The film revolves around an aban-
doned priest who lives alone. His life is
falling apart, and some who voted for
it felt director Steinþór Birgisson man-
aged to get closer to this rather tragic
person then Ómar ever did with his
subjects. A less gracious man might
get defensive, but at the time of writing
Ómar has posted two blog posts about
the festival and he never mentions his
own honorary award, instead opting to
praise Steinþór (who turns out to be an
old colleague of his) to the heavens and
has very kind words for the festival it-
self and its organisers: "It seemed easy
enough to have a festival of this calibre
once, but to do so for five years in a row
is quite an achievement". I agree with
him and truly hope that this little mira-
cle of a festival will continue for years to
come, so I can write many more articles
about it.
THE FILMS OF SKJALDBORG
I didn't see every film at Skjaldborg but I
saw three that would have been worthy
winners. The winning film itself, ‘John
and Reverend John’, but also ‘Paradox’
and ‘A9ainst’ (‘Ge9n’ in Icelandic). ‘Para-
dox’ was a paradox indeed, a film about
the re-imagining of an Icelandic short
film from the sixties, a short film that was
shot but never finished and had been lay-
ing in a box for decades. But it was also
about directors from different genera-
tions and their differences and contained
possibly the funniest scene of the entire
festival.
‘A9ainst’ is a documentary about
the Reykjavík 9 (www.rvk9.org). The film
divided the festival audience, breeding
heated discussions—and if it gets proper
distribution it could end up being a tick-
ing time bomb. It's not a perfect film, but
a very interesting one and a true origi-
nal. If enough people see it, it just might
change the ways of the society it seeks to
criticise.
A fourth film that many felt a deserved
winner was ‘Baldur of Bakki’ (Icelandic:
‘Bakka-Baldur’) by respected filmmaker
Þorfinnur Guðnason. I can't say for my-
self, because I accidentally missed the
film, but based on the good things I heard
about the movie I will not make the same
mistake the next time I have a chance to
view it.
A total of twenty-one films were
shown at the festival, as well as four
works-in-progress. I won't mention them
all here (and I didn't view them all) but
‘My Father’s Land’ (‘Land míns föður’),
‘The Will To Live’ (‘Lífsviljinn’) and
‘Morbid Summer of Laziness’ are all
worth a look, for very different reasons.
Then there was the festival's most sur-
prising treat, ‘Freerun Iceland’, a film
about an extreme sport (jumping and
running over buildings and other obsta-
cles) that even some sport-hating friends
of mine were endlessly fascinated by.