Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.07.2018, Page 8

IHave you ever confused ‘The Green
Mile’ with ‘8 Mile’? ‘10 Years A Slave’ with
‘10,000 BC’? Yes, pretending to be a film
intellectual is hard, especially in Iceland,
where there’s only one movie theatre
dedicated to the more chichi side of film.
But don’t worry—to show the world
you’re an Icelandic film connoisseur
and show your smarts off to that hot
TA, there’s one work that you should
know. It’s called ‘Börn náttúrunnar’
(‘Children of Nature’) and it’s the only
Icelandic picture to ever be nominated
for an Oscar (in 1991), and as we know,
Oscar picks are the crème de la crème.
Cinematic seduction
Directed by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson,
the film is about an old couple, Þorgeir
and Stella, who decide to bucket-list
it and go visit the town they grew up
in. It’s a lighthearted work, for sure,
but still filled with
those lovely emotional
m o m e n t s t h a t ’ l l
give you butterflies.
The New York Times described
the film as, “an intelligent film, not
easily categorised,” that, “consid-
ers death as the perfectly natural,
inevitable end of the life cycle”. High
praise, right? If you want to sound
particularly contemplative and brainy,
recite that word-for-word to that
sexy TA you’re trying to impress. This
is fail-proof cinematic seduction.
Punishing the innocent
Unfortunately, the film didn’t win,
and instead the academy chose ‘Medi-
terraneo’ by the Italian director Gabriele
Salvatores. That said, ‘Mediterraneo’ is a
film about WWII and, as
we know, the Academy
is a sucker for trauma
porn. What, are we
supposed to punish Icelanders for not
sending all their young men to die just
because some Germans took over a Polish
radio station? We demand a recount.
WHAT HAVE WE WON?
An Oscar
(Nomination)
#ChildrenOfNatureWasRobbed
8 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2018
LÓABORATORIUM
Children Of Nature, a classic Icelandic film
Listen, watch & more tracks:
gpv.is/play
ASTVALDUR -
Abundance
This scorching track
features a sparse
sound palette
that manages
to sound both
surgically cold and
tinnitus-inducingly
maxed-out the
same time. The drop,
when it comes, is an
insistent arrhythmia
that sounds much
like a motherboard
having a nervous
breakdown whilst
lost in the club. The
album, ‘CORRELATION
ATTEMPTS,’ is out
now. JR
Omotrack - Way
Home
“Way Home” is
about the diaspora
the brothers of
Omotarck—Markús
and Birkir—feel
about their
homeland. Born in
the small town of
Omorate, Ethiopia,
the two boys
explore the feelings
of being caught in
between the two
lands in this upbeat
melodic track
that still projects
a lovely feeling of
wistfulness. HJC
Hekla - Muddle
The beguiling
theremin
experiments of
Hekla continue to
catch the ear of
experimental music
lovers, at home and
abroad. Her latest
single, “Muddle,”
has breathy vocals
floating inside an
ambient, bassy
cloud. An album, ‘Á,’
will follow on August
on the UK-based
Phantom Limb label.
JR
Kristín Anna - Forever
Love
Holding the torch
for the gossamer-
delicate, precious
and precocious
sound of Icelandic
indie music is
sometime múm-
member and solo
artist Kristín Anna,
nee Kría Brekkan.
“Forever Love” is a
galloping piano-and-
strings ballad; the
lush video bears the
fiery fingerprints of
collaborator Ragnar
Kjartansson. A
promising harbinger
for her album, ‘I Must
Be the Devil.’ JR
MAMMÚT – Kinder
Version
The video for
MAMMÚT’s “Kinder
Version” is a work
of art in itself. It’s
provocative and
avant-garde—
probably too
much so for most
mainstream markets
in the world, because
of all the disinhibited
nakedness. The song
itself reminds of one
of Trent Reznor’s
better compositions,
with a Björk-ish
flair. VG
Andi - Á döfinni
This sparkling Italo
disco track has
several constantly
evolving and
intertwining synth
melodies skating
over its bass groove
foundation. It’ll
make you think a
little of electronic
music staples like
Kraftwerk and
Hermigervill, and
leave you hungry to
hear the rest of his
forthcoming second
album ‘Allt í einu.’ JR
THE
GRAPEVINE
PLAYLIST
The must-hear tracks of the issue
“We demand a
recount.”
Ka
rp
hú
s
WORD OF
THE ISSUE
The word of the issue is karphús, a
word of unclear origin but more than
one meaning. Karphús
is almost always used in
the context of “að taka
einhvern í karphúsið,” or
“to take someone by the
karphús,” which means to
really give someone a firm
scolding. The word appears
in Icelandic as far back as
the 17th century, and could
have been derived from the
Danish “kapuds”, which is a type of hat
with earflaps. This word itself may have
been derived from the Dutch “karpoets”,
another type of hat. So if you were to
take someone by the hat, presumably
to hold their head steady while scream-
ing at them, you would really be letting
them have it. At the same time, there
is an actual building called Karphús,
home of the offices of state arbitra-
tion, a possible wordplay with “karpa”,
meaning to argue. You can find a simi-
lar word in English, “carping,” which
means to be very critical. It’s a weird
and wonderful word, and that’s why
karphúsið is the word of the issue. PF
Words:
Hannah Jane
Cohen
Photo:
Still from
the film
First