Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.09.2006, Page 11

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David Jón Fuller
For Icelandic filmmaker Árni Ólafur Ásgeirs-son, the future looks
bright. His first full-length
film, Blóðbönd (Thicker Than
Water) garnered him a nomi-
nation for Best Debut at the
Haugesund Film Festival in
Norway. The film was also re-
cently screened at the Toronto
International Film Festival ear-
lier this month.
Árni, whose previous cred-
its were short films Annas Dag
in Danish and P.S. in Polish,
says his induction into the
world of film came gradually.
“I watched a lot of mov-
ies with my brother on video
as a child and a teenager,” he
says, “but it never occurred to
me to take on this kind of work
before I was about 20, when I
became familiar with movies
of the French and Czech new
wave and more older films.
That was when I first discov-
ered that movies could be an
exciting, personal and multi-
facted form of expression, not
solely entertainment.”
His mother also taught act-
ing at the Theatre School of
Iceland, so it was perhaps in-
evitable that he would become
familiar with the acting world.
He actually teaches at the
school himself now, a course
in acting for film. “Strange
how things come full circle,”
he says.
He studied film directing
at The Polish National Film
School in the city of Lodz, Po-
land from which he graduated
in 2001. His final project there
was P.S. He went on to make
Annas Dag in Denmark.
“In itself there is no real
difference making movies in
different languages because
the movie is first and foremost
pictorial narrative,” Árni says.
“Obviously one needs to work
closely with his actors in their
language and show respect for
it; but I try to tell my stories
through images and I try to let
the actor express himself in
other ways than with words, in
spite of the fact that they speak
a lot in my films.”
He adds that he loves cre-
ating a story visually, and that
it can play against the dialogue
— particularly in his latest film
Thicker Than Water, which he
co-wrote with Denijal Hasa-
novic and Jón Atli Jónasson.
The movie is a family dra-
ma centred on an opthalmolo-
gist, Pétur. He is happily mar-
ried and he and his wife Ásta
are expecting their second
child. Their lives are thrown
into turmoil when Pétur dis-
covers he is not the biological
father of their 10-year-old son,
Örn.
In the movie, Árni says,
“the characters practically
never talk about how they feel
or what they’re thinking. They
talk about work, soccer, this
and that. They actually talk
about anything but what really
matters.
“That’s actually very Ice-
landic, I think. We don’t talk
much about our feelings here
up on the ice. I have actually
been criticized for that, that
my characters talk too little
together about their problems.
But in that is hidden the drama
in Thicker Than Water. The
root of the problem between
the characters in the film is
hidden in that they don’t know
how to express themselves
well enough.”
For Árni and his co-writ-
ers, the main question was how
important blood ties within a
family really are. It’s an apt
subject for an Icelandic movie,
given the interest Icelanders
have long had in genealogy
and family history.
Árni says it’s especially
important “in modern society
in which divorce is common
and many enter into new rela-
tionships where they need to
succeed in raising their new
spouse’s children while their
own children from a previous
relationship are raised by their
mothers and their new spouses.
This is enormously common-
place in Iceland and practically
every single family experienc-
es this.”
Despite the fact that Thick-
er Than Water was his first
feature-length film, he says the
whole process wasn’t as daunt-
ing as he had first expected.
He credits the crew and cast
for making it easier on him.
“[They] were a mixture of
young passionate people and
older or more experienced
professionals who would do
everything for me and they
simply carried me through the
film,” he says.
More difficult is getting the
work distributed, as it is for any
small, independent film. He is
encouraged by its inclusion in
the festivals in Norway and
Canada, and also by the poten-
tial for digital distribution of
movies to theatres. It could just
make it easier for independent
moviehouses to circumvent the
traditional barriers to showing
smaller movies. “It’s no differ-
ent from what is happening in
music,” he says. “Now small,
independent music groups have
more possibilities to become
discovered than, say, 10 years
ago, thanks to a new technol-
ogy called the Internet.”
Árni plans to follow up on
Thicker Than Water’s appear-
ances at film festivals, and is
already thinking about his next
project. He won’t say much
about it at this stage, except
that it takes place very much
in “Icelandic reality.” In the
meantime, he looks forward to
his filmic challenge.
“What’s always most diffi-
cult is to tell a good story and
tell it well. I let others judge
whether we succeeded or not.”
Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 15. september 2006 • 11
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Is blood thicker? Maybe not
Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson probes family relationships in first feature
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF PEGASUS PICTURES
Biological and social family relationships are at the heart of Thicker Than Water.
Director Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson (right) with director of pho-
tography Tuomo Hutri on the set of Thicker Than Water.
Hilmar Jónsson as Pétur and Margrét Vilhjálmsdóttir as Ásta.