04/12/2013 - Icelandic retrospective covering the last 20 years, two films in the Nordic competition – and an Honorary Dragon for Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur

Taking place between January 24-February 3, 2014, Sweden’s 37^th Göteborg International Film Festival will highlight the cinema of Iceland – the 103,000 sq km island on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, between the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, with a population of 325,000 and seven features currently in production.

“Whether Iceland’s economic turmoil has spurred the creativity of the country’s filmmakers is a question we’ll leave unanswered. But the fact is that this year the country has produced a number of very well-made, original and artistic films of high-quality. Each of them manifests Iceland’s distinct character in a refreshing and personal way,” the festival explained.

A retrospective will cover the last 20 years of Icelandic film production (which started In 1979, shortly before the instigation of the Icelandic Film Centre in 2003), and two Icelandic films will compete for the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film: Benedikt Erlingsson’s Of Horses and Men [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benedikt Erlingsson
film profile] and Ragnar Bragason’s Metalhead.

Having just returned from the Tallinn Black Nights International Film Festival with two prizes – for Best Feature Debut and the international critics’ FIPRESCI award – Erlingsson has been honoured for Best Director both in San Sebastian and Tokyo. Of Horses and Men depicts a small Icelandic village, the people and the horses that inhabit it.

Also set in the countryside, at a rural cow farm, Metalhead [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is the story of Hera, whose brother is killed in an accident. Hera blames herself for his death, and in her grief, she finds solace in the dark music of heavy metal and dreams of becoming a rock star. Bragason has been a regular collector of the Edda – Iceland’s national film prize – receiving six since 2006.

Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur, whose The Deep [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] was in this year’s Göteborg competition, will receive the first Honorary Nordic Dragon Award. The Deep swept the 2012 Eddas, winning in 13 – thirteen – categories; he has most recently directed the US thriller, 2 Guns, with Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, and he is currently producing his Icelandic colleague Dagur Kári’s first Icelandic-language feature since 2003, Rocketman, for his BlueEyes Productions.