Reykjavík Grapevine - 15.07.2016, Page 46

‘Stella í Orlofi’ (“Stella on Holiday”)
is known in English as ‘The Icelan-
dic Shock Station’, though refer-
ring to the 1986 film by its English
title implies that the film is known
abroad at all. It isn’t, except by the
curious few who’ve given it a spin
on IcelandAir’s in-flight entertain-
ment. Yet this deceptively antic
farce about a housewife acciden-
tally bringing a Swedish alcoholic
to a summer cottage remains per-
haps the most beloved of Icelandic
films: almost as old as the Icelandic
Film Fund itself, it lodged itself in
the culture early.
The Icelandic Film Fund initially
sought to perpetuate lofty artistic
and cultural traditions through
this new (domestic) art form, be-
ginning with its prestigious first
film ‘Land and Sons’ (see Issue 8,
2016), a literary adaptation with
weighty themes of rural heritage
versus urban capitalist moderniza-
tion. But it was comedies that were
consistently the biggest domestic
hits—to see the particular foibles
of Icelandic society on-screen for
the first time was a shock, a plea-
sure and an affirmation. One comic
set piece in ‘Stella í Orlofi’ concerns
a pilot with a lucrative sideline as
a black-market importer of Dan-
ish beer (in those days, before the
lifting of the beer ban, everyone
brought it back from abroad; strat-
egies for dodging import duties,
handed down from generation to
generation, persist to this day).
However, like ‘Land and Sons’,
‘Stella í Orlofi’, is, in its way, con-
cerned with the opposition of ru-
ral values and modern urban con-
sumer culture. Stella is a bubbly
housewife in Reykjavík, living with
her drunk, surly cheating husband
and smart-aleck kids, in a house
full of high-tech 80s conveniences
(Stella’s on-trend floral blouses
and bright yellow sweatsuit give
the film a brazen datedness that
has helped endear it to older and
younger viewers alike). When her
husband breaks a few bones and
burns himself during a freak acci-
dent, Stella decides to pick up her
husband’s business partner for a
fishing weekend. Not knowing her
husband was actually set to meet
his Danish mistress, Stella buffa-
los an unsuspecting Swedish drunk
into her station wagon. He came to
Iceland for rehab, and gets “shock
treatment” in the form of the far-
cical complications that ensue, in-
cluding a famous salmon-fishing
scene scored to the Icelandic equiv-
alent of “Yakety Sax.”
‘Stella í Orlofi’ was written by
Guðný Halldórsdóttir, later a pro-
lific arthouse filmmaker (and the
daughter of Halldor Laxness). It is
the only feature film directed by
Þórhildur Þorleifsdóttir, who has
worked mostly in the theater. In-
deed, the wild slapstick and broad
directing seems quite stagy, played
to the back row—the actors pull
faces and ping around the frame,
rubbery as few movie actors have
been since the coming of sound
and the fading out of the old mu-
sic-hall comedians.
But Þórhildur’s other profession
is also relevant: she served four
years in Parliament as a member of
the Women’s List, the feminist party
of the 80s and 90s. There is a clear,
if subtle feminist message to the
film: as played by Edda Björgvin-
sdóttir, Stella’s blithe perma-grin
and buoyantly blow-dried blonde
hair become the armor which en-
able her to grapple with serious
challenges (if also zany and bizarre),
in her marriage and in her everyday
life in general. The trip to the coun-
try is a cure for her as much as for
her rehabbing guest: a zippy cathar-
sis, a salve for the hidden wounds
of Reykjavík’s suddenly prosperous
bourgeois family life.
How to watch: Stream it at icelan-
diccinemaonline.com, or check the
in-flight entertainment options on
Icelandair.
SHARE: gpv.is/stella
Words MARK ASCH
"a shock, a pleasure and an affirmation"
‘Stella í Orlofi’
Movies Saga of Icelandic Cinema46
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2016
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