Author: - The Reykjavik Grapevine

The Devil and the Fiddle, or: Spoken Word Classical Rocks

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It just might be that spoken word backed by classical music could be the new rock. And not a moment…

Selfies With Sith Lords: Iceland’s Midgard Comic-Con Comes Online

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“How did Star Wars change your life?” is one of the questions posed to the panellists at Iceland’s first ever…

Murders At The Movies: Jar City Revisited

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It is surprising that even though crime fiction writer Arnaldur Indriðason is something of an industry, being the best-selling writer…

Moderately Warm In The City: Billy Idol In Reykjavik

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The evening starts with a surprise, and not an altogether pleasant one. Instead of getting our Billy on time, an…

All Our Yesterdays: Guns N’ Roses Take Reykjavik

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Guns N’ Roses take to the stage like a lumbering Apatosaurus, crushing everything in their path and in constant danger…

The World of Yesterday
: 101 Reykjavík Revisited

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The ‘90s were another country. The late ‘80s had given us malls, pizza delivery, even more TV and, most important,…

The Trump Era Finds Its Poet: Sicario 2

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If Denis Villeneuve‘s near-masterpiece Sicario went out of its way to be several shades of grey, then Stefano Sollima’s follow-up…

A Woman Goes To War: Finally, Iceland Is Ready For Eco-Terrorism

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In the 2014-15 season, a triumvirate of films appeared that set the benchmark for Icelandic cinema in the 2010s. That…

Pain And Empathy In Award Winning Movie ‘And Breathe Normally’

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A recent American film suggests that no one cares about dentists. Much the same can be said about border guards,…

Pain And Empathy In Award Winning Movie ‘And Breathe Normally’

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A recent American film suggests that no one cares about dentists. Much the same can be said about border guards,…

Ben Kingsley and the New Icelandic Star of Cinema

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We all remember ‘Death and the Maiden,’ the 1994 film starring Ben Kingsley as a suspected war criminal flushed out…

Festival Season Arrives: Whiling Away Winter in the City Cinemas

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Back in the dark ages before the advent of Bíó Paradís, one of the few opportunities Reykvikians had to see…

Ploey: You Never Fly Alone, aka Valur The Killer vs. The Migration Birds

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Perhaps one of the reasons there haven’t been very many Icelandic cartoons (apart from the probative costs), is that there…

From Crime Fiction To Running The Government: Meet Iceland’s New Prime Minister

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They say everyone in Iceland knows each other, but that’s an exaggeration. I went to visit the President, Guðni Th….

A Song of Innocence: The Swan Is Born

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“The worst part about this is that it’s not even original,” says the young girl, now pregnant, and with seemingly…

Last Words: Whose History?

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In Brussels, they have just opened a museum of European History. But is it really possible to tell the unified…

A Song of Innocence: The Swan is Born

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„The worst part about this is that its not even original,” says the young girl, now pregnant, and with seemingly…

1997: The Last Days of Rock

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Yes, rock is dead. It is dead in the sense that punk is dead. Or classical. Punk by now belongs…

The Reykjavik Poet Par-Excellence: Megas Talks About Music, Drugs, Björk, Toyota, Armageddon and the Afterlife

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The first time I interviewed Megas was during my first summer as editor of the new paper  Reykjavik Grapevine 15…

Last Words: Maybe This Time Will Be Different

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When is history a reliable predictor of future events? The last time a left-wing party formed a government with the…

No Singles Allowed: The Great Bolungarvík Debate

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When the first Þorrablót (an annual celebration involving the eating of sheep’s testicles and drinking of brennvín, among other merriments)…

Blast From The Past: Student Protests In The 1800s

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Probably the most famous student protest ever in Iceland took place in 1850. A group of students at the Latin…

Welcome To The Old Skool: Icelandic Legends To Play Airwaves

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Airwaves. That time of year when annoying youngsters fill the streets with their unbridled joy, loudness and new-fangled music (this…

Of Miners and Moonshine: Debut Film From Icelandic Director In Denmark

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It’s interesting to note that despite most of them studying abroad, Icelandic film directors almost universally come home to start…

Blast from the Past: Danish Soldiers Maim Themselves Celebrating

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Everyone will tell you that the reason “Þjóðhátíð” (literally, “national celebration”) is held in the Westman Islands every year is…