Lincoln Center hosts Icelandic film series

There are 20 films in the programme, which marks the largest presentation of Icelandic cinema ever organised in the US.

Early films will include Iceland’s first two features that used sound, Between Mountain And Shore (1949) and Last Farm In The Valley (1950); as well as Iceland’s first international hit, Agust Gudmundsson’s Land And Sons (1980).

The series will open with recent festival hit Either Way by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson and will also include Reykjavik Rotterdam, directed by Oskar Jonasson and starring Baltasar Kormakur), which became the basis for Kormakur’s recent US hit Contraband. Another standout will be Runar Runarsson’s Cannes 2011 Directors Fortnight selection Volcano.

Other selections include Fridrik Thor Fridriksson’s Angels of The Universe (2000) about a schziophrenic man’s world and his feature fiction debut White Whales (1987); Valdis Oskarsdottir’s family dark comedy Country Wedding (2008); economic documentary Dreamland (2009); Erik Balling’s controversial The Girl Gogo (1962); fishing world story Ingalo (1992); Baltasar Kormakur’s hit crime procedural Jar City (2006) [pictured]; Dagur Kari’s Noi The Albino (2003); Kristin Johannesdottir’s Rainbow’s End (1983); music doc Rock In Reykjavik (1982); and Viking cult film When The Raven Flies (1984); and 2010 festival drama Undercurrent by Arni Asgeirsson.

“Since its international emergence in the early 1980s, Icelandic cinema has been screened in every corner of the globe, and with the success of Contraband — adapted from the Icelandic film Reykjavik Rotterdam — it’s clear that now even Hollywood is looking at Icelandic films,“ notes FSLC Program Director Richard Pena. “Fearless in their treatment of a wide range of subjects, and known for their brilliant use of some of the world’s most startling landscapes, Icelandic films celebrate the vital and continuing importance of the cinematic production of ‘small nations.’”

“’Glöggt er gests augad’ is an Icelandic proverb, meaning the visitor sees matters in a new and different perspective. This is very true when it comes to Richard Peña’s selection of Icelandic films for the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Images From The Edge series, added Laufey Guðjónsdóttir, Director of the Icelandic Film Centre. “This is the most extensive presentation of Icelandic films abroad so far in terms of variety and historical significance and we are grateful for the invitation.”