Atlantica - 01.09.2007, Page 76

74 a t l a n t i c a
Gay wrestlers! Polish gardeners! Born again car salesmen! All these colorful characters and more will be
gracing Iceland’s silver screen this fall when filmmakers and enthusiasts from around the world flood
Reykjavík for the fourth annual Reykjavik International Film Festival (RIFF). The action starts on 27
September and wraps up on 7 October, when about 100 films will have been screened.
The festival will showcase films in categories like “Icelandic Panorama”, a combination of new and
classic films, and “Human Rights”, a mix of perspectives on the current situation in Iraq. In keeping with
its tradition, the festival will spotlight new cinema, reserving the main competition and the Golden Puffin
Award for directors of first or second features.
Although RIFF sees itself as a starting point for many films that will go on to larger festivals, this year it
will also celebrate the past by honoring German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Though he died over
twenty years ago, Fassbinder lives on as one of the most important representatives of the frenetic New
German Cinema. The festival’s honorary guest, German actress Hanna Schygulla, who appeared in more
than twenty of Fassbinder’s films, will be presented RIFF’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Iceland’s own Sigur Rós will open the festival with the premier of their documentary about their 2006
tour around Iceland, and later on indie rock family Danielson will illustrate their rise to fame from the small
town of Clarksboro, New Jersey with a film and concert. Also of interest, Midnight Movies will be held in
one of Iceland’s oldest movie theaters, an appropriate setting for some of the festival’s more uncanny films
about killer sheep and a hippy-hating murderer.
Drive-in, Rain
or Shine
The Reykjavík International Film
Festival has commandeered a US
naval hangar and is hosting a drive-in
movie night. And what better film
to show when hijacking US property
than George Lucas’s American Graffiti.
Because Icelandic weather is unpre-
dictable, the abandoned building, the
largest shelter in Iceland, is the perfect
venue. Once a haven for large planes
and helicopters, the hangar will play
host to 1,500 vans, trucks, and cars at
this rare event on 3 October.
Lucas’s classic American Graffiti will
complete the drive-in experience with
the story of four teenagers in the early
1960s who decide to live it up on the
last day of summer. To set the mood,
American music from the sixties will
be played over the speakers through-
out the day. So pull up, roll down, and
settle in for a night at the movies. The
weather gods can’t spoil this one.Un-CANNES-y
By Anna Andersen
icelanda Special promotion