Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.10.2017, Page 42

Of Miners and
Moonshine
Debut film from Icelandic director in Denmark

Words: Valur Gunnarsson Photo: Still from the film

It’s interesting to note that despite
most of them studying abroad, Ice-
landic film directors almost uni-
versally come home to start their
careers. This was true of the men of
the “Icelandic Film Spring” in the
1980s, so titled as it was a belated
beginning to homegrown cinema
in the country. Many of the direc-
tors of that time had studied in
Sweden and some in London, and
yet decided to come home to take
part in a movie industry that hardly
existed.
Winter brothers
Even if Icelandic filmmaking has
grown, it is still miniscule com-
pared to neighbouring countries.
A director such as Dagur Kári
graduated from the Danish Film
Academy in 1999 with his short
film ‘Lost Weekend,’ which went
on to win 11 prizes on the festival
circuit. Yet he came home to di-
rect his first feature ‘Nói Albínói,’
before returning to Denmark to
make the Danish language ‘Vok-
sne Mennesker’ (‘Dark Horse’).
Director Hlynur Pálmason has
had a similar start, but decided to
stay put in Iceland. For now. Born
in Hornafjörður in the southeast of
Iceland in 1984, he graduated from
the Danish Film Academy (where
Dagur Kári was by then teaching) at
the age of 29. His graduation work,
‘En Maler’ (‘A Painter’) starred
Dane Elliot Crosset Hove but also
featured Icelandic legend Ingvar E.
Sigurðsson. His first feature, ‘Vin-
trebrödre’ (‘Winter Brothers’) is a
primarily Danish affair, featuring
Hove again as a dead-end miner in
a dead-end town. And it has started
to win a bunch of awards.
Darkly realistic
Mining films may be a small niche,
although we did get ‘The 33’ a couple
of years ago, about Chilean miners
stuck in a shaft for two months.
That one may have been a real life
story, but this one feels far more
claustrophobic.
In fact, it is the mining scenes
that impress the most. The cin-
ematography is astounding. But
when we get back to the surface,
things aren’t quite so exciting.
Hove is suitably hopeless-looking
as the mining lifer and moon-
shine salesman, constantly in the
shadow of his older brother who
even has a girlfriend. And Lars
Mikkelsen, older brother of Mads,
chews through the one scene ac-
corded him like the pro that he is.
But the plot, much like the life of
the protagonists, doesn’t really
seem to be going anywhere. A gun
is produced. Chekov would not be
impressed. There is the constant
threat of violence, but then…
Most young Icelandic fi lm-
makers are set on writing and
directing. It would do them no
harm to get some help on occa-
sion with the latter. Nevertheless,
it is a relief to see a debut film set
in a hopeless Danish town rather
than an Icelandic one. And Hlynur
from Hornafjörður does make a
darkly realistic depiction of these
people. We might not have many
miners here, but we certainly have
moonshiners. This is an interest-
ing debut, beautifully shot. Expect
greater things to come, be they in
Danish or Icelandic.
‘Winter Brothers’ made its Ice-
landic debut at the RIFF Film Fes-
tival and is currently showing in
Bíó Paradís with Icelandic subti-
tles.
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Desk jockeys and miners