Although Iceland, with its population of 330,000, produces up to six features annually, it is foreign directors who are in the majority in the Icelandic Panorama at the 13^th Reykjavik International Film Festival, which opened last week (29 September). The festival’s programme is aimed at “building a bridge between Icelandic cinema and international filmmaking”.

The showcase was launched by the French-Icelandic co-production, The Together Project [+lee también:
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Scottish director Graeme Maley will, this year, present his second feature shot in Iceland, following his debut film, A Reykjavík Porno [+lee también:
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German director Till Endemann is exploring the darker side of Reykjavik in Iceland Crime –Mystery of Westfjords, in which a local crime novel writer investigates the, apparently accidental, death of a school friend. In Northern Experience, French director Gurwann Tran Van Gie attempts to examine the impact of the Icelandic landscape on a writer and an artist.

Estonian director Mart Kivastik’s When You Least Expect It is described as a “melodramatic comedy – a love story between two hopelessly lonely people”, while Icelandic director Pétur Einarsson’s Ransacked follows the 2008 collapse of the Icelandic banking sector, and how hedge funds, which bet on the crash, made millions in profits.

Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky, who was to have been among the festival’s guests honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award, has had to cancel his Reykjavik visit for health reasons; he will be replaced by his actor son, Brontis Jodorowsky, who has worked extensively with his father, performing in his El Tope, among others. The younger Jodorowsky will hold a master class, run in conjunction with the screenings of his father’s latest films,Endless Poetry [+lee también:
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The festival’s main national focus will be on Polish cinema, including eight of the country’s recent features (featuring Polish director Tomasz Wasilewski’s titles Floating Skyscrapers [+lee también:
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Unspooling between 6-8 October, the RIFF Industry Days will centre on Icelandic film composers, who have, in recent years, collected several major international awards for their work. There will also be the usual presentation of Icelandic works-in-progress (feature films, documentaries and shorts in various stages of production) and The Amazing Location Trip, a six-hour tour of Iceland to visit the shooting locations of such US productions as Batman Begins (2005), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Game of Thrones (2011), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), Interstellar [+lee también:
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