Author: Valur Gunnarsson
Ben Kingsley and the New Icelandic Star of Cinema
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
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
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
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
“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?
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
„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
by Valur Gunnarsson and Andie Sophia Fontaine
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
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
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
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
by Valur Gunnarsson and Andie Sophia Fontaine
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
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
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
Everyone will tell you that the reason “Þjóðhátíð” (literally, “national celebration”) is held in the Westman Islands every year is…
Blast from the Past: Illicit Love in Öskjuhlíð
It used to be that Öskjuhlíðin hill was the best place to go in RVK for an American-style dating experience….
The Square: Art, Sex And Other Nuisances Of Modern Life
Ruben Östlund may well be the finest filmmaker working in the Nordic Countries today, so for him, taking aim at…
Rock and Roll Archetype Excavated: Bubbi Live At Dillon
There is something fishy about Bubbi offering a free concert. After all, this is the man who has done more…
Out of Thin Air: Documentary Charts Alleged Murder & The End Of Innocence
On January 25, 1974, 18-year-old Guðmundur Einarsson disappeared without a trace. His body was never found, which caused great consternation…
North Of The Wall: A Game of Thrones Tour Of Iceland
The Iron Island clan in ‘Game of Thrones’ are based on the Vikings from Nordic history—but they are both more…
The Nordic House: Reminding Us Of What We Aren’t
The Nordic House was built in Reykjavík in 1968 to prove that Iceland is indeed one of the Nordic Countries….
Blast from the Past: The Ghosts of Höfði
So, they‘ve met. Not in Reykjavik as we had all hoped, but in Hamburg. Last time the leaders of East…
Öskjuhlíð: The Pearl of Reykjavík
To many, Perlan (“the Pearl”) looks like a giant nipple, a feminine counterpart to the phallic symbolism of the Hallgrímskirkja…
Crisis? What Crisis? The Icelandic Tourism Industry Teeters
In late June, Icelandair reported that it had laid off 20% of its pilots. A few weeks later, it reported…
Bíó Paradís Brings Back The 80s
Theresa May is the new Thatcher. Trump is the new Reagan. Empires are dying in Afghanistan. East-West tensions are running…