Articles by: Valur Gunnarsson
Finding True Iceland Up North: The Sagas Of Skagafjörður, A Siglufjörður Gold Rush, Húsavík Whales
There are many ways to get to the North from dear old Reykjavík. One entails flying, which provides an impressive…
Searching For New Iceland Part 5: The Mystery Of The Goolies
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that the Icelanders in Manitoba were nicknamed “Goolies,” which started out as a slur…
Origin Stories, Or: Why We Believe We Are Who We Think We Are
Every nation has an origin story. Unique about Icelanders in this regard, at least from the European perspective, is that…
Scandinavia Explained To The English Speaker
To the outsider, the Scandinavian countries tend to all look the same. This is, in fact, not entirely true. First…
What Does It Take To Become A “Friend Of Iceland”?
The term Íslandsvinur, “Friend of Iceland,” first appeared in Iceland’s media in 1874, in the annual Fréttir frá Íslandi (“News from Iceland”)….
Home Of The Prairie Wind: Searching For New Iceland Part 4
Prairie. Nothing but prairie as far as the eye can see. It must have been terrifying for the New Icelanders…
How To Insult An Icelander: Searching For New Iceland Part 3
What do you call an Icelander? Would an Icelander by any other name still smell as sweet? Being small island…
Searching For New Iceland Part 2: At The Heart Of It All
Somewhere between Selfoss and a Springsteen song lies the town of Gimli, Manitoba. If any town can be said to…
Searching For New Iceland Part 1: Celebrating June 17 In Toronto
Maybe it’s the friendliness of the bus driver, or perhaps just the scorching heat, but it’s pretty clear I’m not…
What Can The Recent British Elections Teach Us About Icelandic Politics?
Two things of note happened in the United Kingdom on May 7. One of them, as you may have heard,…
Film Review: A Dark Horse With A Good Heart – ‘Fúsi’ (“Virgin Mountain”)
Icelandic cinema seems to be doing rather well with upwards of twelve premieres expected this year. For those who worried…
Does the West Pass the Test? A Great New German Film Re-examines The Cold War In The Shadow Of Snowden
The current spate of movies set in East Germany started as far back as 2003 with the comedy Good Bye,…
Dark Valley: A Sauerkraut Western Renounces Religion
Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained was not the first German (or Austrian) to discover the Wild West. In the late…
A Legend Attempts Real Life: Handball Hero Ólafur Stefánsson Portrayed In New Doc
One of the many, many things Icelanders like to brag about to foreigners are the merits of our handball teams….
Critics On A Plane And Other Tales of Mayhem and Murder: Wild Tales Is Great
One of the leftovers of the smörgåsbord that was the Stockfish Film Festival is Wild Tales, still being screened at…
We Met The Men Responsible For The Grumpiest Finn
Grumpy old men seem to be all the rage in the Nordics these days. The Swedes have their 100-year-old who…
Baby Steps To Freedom: Palestinian Filmmaker Najwa Najjar And The Power Of Cinema
“These are the darkest times for Palestine and I think it may get worse.” Filmmaker Najwa Najjar, rather like her…
A Very Good Idea And A Little Luck: An Interview With Norwegian Director Bent Hamer
Can Norwegians be funny? This question was first addressed in the 1968 film The Man Who Couldn’t Laugh, which actually…
Norway After Breivik: Eskil Vogt And His Movie Blind
The Swedes and the Danes have usually taken turns winning the Nordic Council film awards, that is, until Iceland’s Benedikt…
It Only Takes A Little Discrimination To Make A Revolutionary
An interview with French-Algerian director Rachid BoucharebEveryone dreams of making a movie that will change the world, but one of…
Does the West Pass the Test? A Great New German Film Re-examines The Cold War In The Shadow Of Snowden
The current spate of movies set in East Germany started as far back as 2003 with the comedy Good Bye,…
The Dogs D’Amour
What’s Good At The French Film Festival? Whether by accident or design, each year’s French Film Festival seems to be…
The Puffinisation Of A Country: Tourism Today
When Grapevine started in 2003, we were in the midst of what at the time seemed like a considerable tourism…
Iceland On The Brain: 1200 Years Of Tourism
Everyone knows that Ingólfur Arnarson (that chap with the spear thing on the hill overlooking the city centre) was Iceland’s…
The Liverpool Of The North
The Icelandic museum of rock ’n’ roll opens in Kef CityAccording to legend, it was the proximity to the US…