Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.03.2018, Qupperneq 38

Pain And Empathy
In Award-Winning
Film ‘And Breathe
Normally’
Words: Valur Gunnarsson Pictures: From the movie
A recent American film suggests
that no one cares about dentists.
Much the same can be said about
border guards, who at best force
you to unpack in front of them
and make you forget your wallet
at security before going on hol-
iday, and at worst destroy your
hopes and dreams of a better life
in a safer land. Yet, a new Icelandic
film, 'Andið Eðlilega' ('And Breathe
Normally'), asks you to care about
their plight while at the same time
worrying about the fate of refu-
gees. Can this be done?
A game changer
The stakes are high from the be-
ginning. Lára, a single mother and
former drug addict, has lost her
job, her house—everything but
her son. An offer to work as a bor-
der guard is her last chance to get
her life on track. Adja is a single
mother from Guinea-Bissau who
must get to Canada via Iceland to
see her daughter. Her girlfriend
was killed for her sexual orienta-
tion and Adja may well suffer the
same fate if she goes back. Lára, by
doing her job, can’t help but ruin
Adja. Both characters are human
beings, stuck in a difficult situa-
tion in a harsh world.
Ever since Iceland was “discov-
ered” in the 1990s, foreign charac-
ters have been a staple in local cin-
ema, as love interests or tourists
showing us our quirks from a new
point of view. But very few films
have been made about immigrants
here (barring the odd Serbian
gangster) and virtually none at all
about asylum seekers. For this rea-
son alone, ‘And Breathe Normally’
is a game changer.
Heart-rending scenes
Sure, it can feel a little heavy-hand-
ed at times. For the state to bill
a refugee for her legal defence is
brutal, but we don’t really need her
lawyer talking about fine wines
on the phone to make the point.
And Adja is almost too saintly, do-
ing everything she can to help the
woman who wrecked her life.
But these are minor gripes
for a major film. There are many
heart-rending scenes, such as the
one where Lára, sleeping in her
car next to the airport, tells her
son she has never been to another
country. There are the Gestapo tac-
tics of dragging people from their
beds in the middle of the night to
deport them. And Adja’s attempts
to escape are more gut-wrenching
than most Icelandic action films
have managed.
Almost a docu-drama
Mostly, the film is made in the
best Nordic social realist tradition,
with every scene serving a specific
purpose. At times, it almost slips
into docu-drama, with the human
rights lawyer being played by an
actual human rights lawyer, who
also acts as legal counsel for the
film.
The setting is refreshing. We
don’t see cool 101 Reykjavík, nor do
we get wide shots of natural beau-
ty. Most scenes take place around
the airport in Keflavík or at the
cargo harbour. Iceland may be an
island, but it is an island with bor-
ders, and not so welcoming to all
as the ad campaigns might have
you believe.
Most refreshing, though, is the
focus on the downtrodden—both
foreign and domestic—whom pol-
itics sometimes seems to put at
odds, despite having more in com-
mon than is often acknowledged.
The great film critic Roger
Ebert said that movies are ma-
chines that generate empathy. By
that criteria, this is as good as it
gets.
‘Andið Eðlilega’ is showing in Ice-
landic in various local cinemas and
with subtitles in Bíó Paradís and
Háskólabíó.
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