When the Raven Flies (Hrafninn flýgur)
Iceland 1984. Dir: Hrafn Gunnlaugsson. 110 min. DCP
The first film in director Hrafn Gunnlaugsson’s epic Viking trilogy, When the Raven Flies opens as a young Irish boy witnesses the slaughter of his parents and the kidnapping of his older sister by marauding Viking warriors. Years later, the now-grown boy (Jakob Thór Einarsson), known as Gest, arrives in Iceland seeking to exact vengeance on the clan of killers and Thór, its leader, who is now the husband of Gest’s sister and father of her young child. Evoking memories of Kurosawa’s Yojimbo and Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (as well as the Mad Max series, in its creepy, BDSM-suggestive costume design), this starkly violent and enormously entertaining riff on the spirit of the Icelandic sagas drew the vocal praise of none other than Ingmar Bergman, whose son Daniel served as assistant director on the film’s equally exhilarating sequel, Shadow of the Raven. – SG/TIFF SATURDAY, JUNE 15 – 8:20 PM SUNDAY, JUNE 16 – 4:00 PM
Nói albinói (Nói the Albino)
Iceland 2003. Dir: Dagur Kári. 93 min. 35mm
Nói (Tomas Le Marquis), a teenaged loner living with his grandmother in a small fishing village in Iceland’s West Fjords, is perpetually at odds with his teachers, his principal, and his whole sleepy town, but things start looking up when he meets new-girl-in-town Íris (Elín Hansdóttir), who works at the local gas station. Fusing a quirky, deadpan sense of humour with the almost surreal atmosphere of its eerily still, isolated setting, Dagur Kári’s first feature survived negative feedback in previews to make a wildly successful debut at Rotterdam; it subsequently played more than seventy festivals worldwide, picking up numerous awards along the way. Not only one of the best modern Icelandic films, Nói albinói is also one of the key world-cinema titles of the 2000s, and helped pave the way for the warm international receptions given to Kári’s compatriots Grímur Hákonarson (Rams), Benedikt Erlingsson (Woman at War), and others. – SG/TIFF SUNDAY, JUNE 16 – 8:50 PM MONDAY, JUNE 17 – 6:30 PM
Golden Sands (Gullsandur)
Iceland 1984. Dir: Ágúst Gudmundsson. 98 min. DCP
Suggesting an Icelandic version of a classic Ealing Studios comedy, director Ágúst Gudmundsson’s satire chronicles the tumult that results when a group of American soldiers mysteriously sets up camp near a small town in Iceland’s south (echoing the genuine national furor that followed the establishment of a U.S. base in Iceland in 1949). The hero, youth-club leader Eiríkur (Pálmi Gestsson), vocally opposes the armed foreigners (not least because he’s worried local women will be interested in them); his politics have been heavily influenced by his crush on strident town communist Ásthildur (Edda Björgvinsdóttir), with whom he organizes an anti-American demonstration. The protest gains little traction, but when word gets out that the Americans are searching for treasure, comic chaos ensues. Ágúst’s 1980 debut Land and Son was Iceland’s first feature of the modern era and is still frequently cited as one the country’s finest films. – SG/TIFF SUNDAY, JUNE 23 – 6:30 PM
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