I & I - 2011, Page 42

42 I&I
HuLLAbALoo
Hullabaloo (Gauragangur), released in december 2010 and
directed by Gunnar B. Gudmundsson, provides a unique
look into the life of a teenager in Reykjavík at the end of the
1970s and into the new decade.
If you think not much has changed between then and now,
the film’s synopsis does a good job of pointing out some of the
differences in Iceland’s capital city:
“The mullet is just about to put its mark on a unsuspecting
generation, there is no TV on Thursdays, only one radio sta-
tion, beer is still an outlawed commodity and somewhere within
the city limits the first female president the world will see has a
dream.”
I’ve got to admit, despite the characters’ 70s and 80s garb, it
actually took me a while to realize Hullabaloo wasn’t set in the
present day.
Based on a book by Ólafur Haukur Símonarson, Hullabaloo is
a creative and playful film that at times reminded me of Ferris
Bueller’s Day Off, the 1980s classics from director John Hughes,
and even Jason Reitman’s Juno. But this film certainly wasn’t a
copy of anything I’d seen before; it felt different and very Ice-
landic.
Hullabaloo is a typical ‘teen’ film in the sense it follows teen-
ager Ormur Ódinsson (played by Alexander Briem), and his in-
fatuation with his classmate Linda (played by Hildur Berglind
Arndal), in the familiar ‘boy likes girl, boy chases girl’ scenario.
Hullabaloo is beautifully shot and captures another time in
Reykjavík. I was amazed at how the city I have grown to know
so well was transformed, in large part by the atmosphere cre-
ated by the interplay of a number of elements.
I liked that the film evoked a feeling of nostalgia, but did so in
a subtle manner and thereby avoided turning into stereotype or
an inside joke about life in the late 1970s.
iceLAndic movies:
HAppy, sAd And serious
Icelandic film makers have turned
to various subjects in their films,
and most of them are
strongly Icelandic.
By Alana Odegard.
IN THE LAST FOUR
yEARS 28 NEW FULL
LENGTH MOVIES
WERE MADE IN
ICELAND!
IT'S A FACT: