Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.08.2013, Page 40

Baltasar is currently in Berlin, filming the pilot
for an HBO series called “The Missionary.” The
story commences in East-Berlin in 1969 and
continues into the ‘70s. The director himself
actually visited East-Berlin once in the ‘80s. “I
was on a trip with my drama class, just before
the Wall came down. We had been partying
and I was very hung-over when we crossed
the border and looked nothing like the picture
in my passport. I was arrested in customs and
the whole class had to wait while things were
sorted out. When we finally entered East-Ber-
lin, it seemed as if the sun disappeared behind
the clouds and the food tasted kind of strange,”
he says.
Love in the ‘90s
Sometime after his release from East German
detention, Baltasar started his career in ear-
nest, playing Romeo on the Reykjavík stage
and then becoming the leading man in several
Icelandic films. Born to a Spanish father and
Icelandic mother, he had a whiff of exoticism
about him and was one of the major heart-
throbs in Iceland in the ‘90s. His first film as
director, ‘101 Reykjavík’ from 2000, starred
Spanish actress Victoria Abril and became an
international success of sorts.
It was around this time that he sold his
shares in Kaffibarinn, the bar which he owned
with Damon Albarn of Blur and where much of
the film is set, and turned to domesticity, marry-
ing supermarket chain heiress Lilja Pálmadóttir.
He also largely abandoned acting and turned
full time to directing. This means long periods
away from home. “My son Pálmi is here with
me on set, so I try to bring these things togeth-
er. It’s not always easy to be away for four or
five months at a time, but you cannot complain
about being able to do what you want to be do-
ing,” he says.
Nr. 1 in America
Baltasar’s first English language film was ‘A
Little Trip to Heaven’ in 2005, starring Forest
Whitaker, which he made in between Icelan-
dic films such as ‘Jar City,’ based on the book
by best-selling crime fiction writer Arnaldur
Indriðason. His first American-produced film
was ‘Inhale,’ starring Diane Kruger, but his big
breakthrough came with ‘Contraband’ in 2012.
This was a remake of an Icelandic film that he
himself starred in, with Mark Wahlberg now in
the leading role. Despite receiving mixed re-
views, the movie went straight to number one
at the American box-office on its opening week.
In a position now to do what he wanted,
Baltasar decided to return home to make ‘The
Deep,’ a film based on a play about the true sto-
ry of an Icelandic sailor who spent a night in the
freezing ocean swimming to land after his ship
went down. His next film is ‘Two Guns,’ star-
ring Wahlberg again, along with Denzel Wash-
ington. The film will premiere in the autumn,
but before that, Baltasar has his Berlin story to
complete.
The return of spy films
Parts of Karl-Marx Allee have been made up to
look like they did in 1969, with period cars and
people in period dresses. The sight is consider-
ably different than what one is used to seeing in
other period pieces from the shiny ‘60s. “When
you remake a period, you are not just remaking
that period but also the one that came before,”
says screenwriter Charles Randolph. “Not all the
cars in 1969 were new, and in some ways East
Berlin at the time looked more like the 1940s.”
The series starts with a failed escape at-
tempt over the wall itself, which has been
rebuilt in Budapest on the site of the show’s
main set. “There were four generations of Ber-
lin Wall and they all appear in the series,” says
Randolph, whose father was a missionary
who helped to smuggle people to the west.
“My father wasn’t involved with the CIA, but I
know the atmosphere well. This was the time
when spy organisations were no longer only
gathering information but also taking direct
action,” he adds, and agrees that the ongoing
“War on Terror” might be one reason why spy
films seem to be making a comeback.
Vikings in space
Baltasar’s next film after all this will be ‘Ever-
est,’ about a real life mountaineering expedition
that went tragically wrong. This will also allow
him to spend time at home: “We can probably
shoot most of it on Icelandic glaciers; I don’t
think there is enough oxygen on Everest itself to
make it there.” The film will star Christian Bale,
who was last seen in Iceland in 2005 when he
was making ‘Batman Begins’ (where Iceland
also stood in for Tibet).
Among his other planned projects are a se-
quel to ‘Jar City’, a television series based on the
popular Icelandic computer game EVE Online,
and a long awaited epic set in the Viking Age.
“I want to show the Viking world in a way that it
has never been seen before. No Icelandic direc-
tor so far has had the budget to do this prop-
erly. At the Viking Alþingi, or Parliament, for
example, thousands of people came together
but so far we’ve only gotten to see a few tents
on screen.”
Turning down more money
than you’ll ever make
Other projects he has declined. “I was offered
more money than many people get in a lifetime
to do ‘Fast and Furious 7,’ and it is more difficult
than I would have thought to say no when these
kinds of offers start coming in. What is appeal-
ing is to be able to get the budget to make big
films that also have content, such as “Everest,”
even if you get paid less. I want to make interest-
ing films that also appeal to an audience. I never
wanted to make just hardcore arthouse films
and when I direct for the theatre I also want to
reach people, rather than do a political one man
show in a basement that no one sees.” Baltas-
ar indeed still directs for the Icelandic National
Theatre, which is where he started his career
over 20 years ago.
“When I was growing up in a Reykjavík sub-
urb in the ’70s, I had some dreams that hardly
seemed likely to come true. People would have
laughed if I told them I wanted to be a director in
Hollywood,” he says. Producer Steve Levinson
adds: “Perhaps Baltasar will make it fashionable
to go to Iceland to look for directors.”
Which is more or less what Björk did for Ice-
landic music.
40FilmThe Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 12 — 2013
Hollywood Dreams Come True
Things are going A-OK for director Baltasar Kormákur
Baltasar Kormákur just could be to Icelandic film what Björk is to Icelandic music. In the same way that Björk made Ice-
landic music known outside of the country, Icelandic film has slowly been reaching out to an international audience
—and nobody has made it farther than Baltasar.
“I was offered more
money than many
people get in a lifetime
to do ‘Fast and Furious
7,’ and it is more dif-
ficult than I would have
thought to say no when
these kinds of offers
start coming in.”
By Valur Gunnarsson
Christian Schulze