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A Twilight Portrait Of This Year’s RIFF
For me, the last two weeks of September were all about RIFF. A lot of great films and a few boring ones, a lot of running through down town from Háskólabíó to Bíó Paradís and back; short nights at RIFF parties chatting…
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Eyjafjallajökull: Beautiful As Hell
Jumping up and down, we cross rivers on our fourwheel drive jeep, the majestic Mýrdalsjökull glacier on the right, the sublime Eyjafjallajökull right in front of us and the sun showing off with perfect autumn morning light. We drove through Þórsmörk on…
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A Meeting of Iceland’s hottest bands
Árni Sveinsson’s film ‘Backyard’ makes Iceland’s music scene feel like a big happy family. The story goes like this: Árni Rúnar of FM Belfast decided he wanted to capture Reykjavík’s current music scene on film. Reykjavík is a small town (compared to…
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Sexy Italy
The curtains open and we find ourselves in the middle of a porn scene. Platinum blondes, dressed in colourful plastic-clothes, are doing some sexy pole dancing. Pimp-like men walk around with a rolling gait. The setting is industrial and cold, illuminated by…
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‘The Four Times’
It is in every film critic’s unwritten code of honour not to give away the entire movie in their review. I unfortunately have to break this golden rule to explain why the jury made the right decision. But I’m fair and am…
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Iðnó – Saturday
Photo by Hvalreki Not very typically Airwaves-like, the first show of the day featured not a rock band but a young guy on a grand piano. Nils Frahm from Germany wasn’t wearing tails and bow tie but a comfy hoodie and designer…
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Tjarnarbíó – Friday
Emo-Hip Hop Two men on stage and no more than twenty people in the audience, this is how Friday night at Tjarnarbíó started. The name Epic Rain may suggest an emo-core band, but these guys were all emo-hip hop. One of them…
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Sódóma – Thursday
Dressed in black, white and red wearing gelled quiffs and bringing an upright black bass along, the 59’s lived up to their name. Forming a classical rockabilly band (lead singer/rhythm guitar, solo guitar, bass and drums) the 59’s told their tales about…
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RIFF 2010 For Dummies
So you missed the Reykjavík International Film Festival this year but you want to pretend you were there to impress your friends? We feel your pain, so we put together this little guide to provide you with some inside info so you…
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Fake Orgasms
One night at RIFF I went to a Fake Orgasm Contest, an off-venue event, where girls (and a couple of guys) moaned at their best. After attending the contest I scheduled the films I wanted to see the next day, one of…
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And the Golden Puffin Goes to…
This year’s RIFF is coming to an end and the jurors have decided on which films to reward this year. Cameron Bailey, Co-director of Toronto International Film Festival, Valdís Óskarsdóttir, noted Icelandic director and editor, and Film Comment’s Managing Editor, Laura Kern…
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Jim Jarmusch on…
“I’m not an analytical person and I don’t really analyse what my films mean or what their intention is. I’m intuitive,” says Jim Jarmusch, icon of independent filmmaking. His films are independent in multiple ways: On one hand Jarmusch finances his movies…
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Dinner Party In Faxaflói Bay
We knew we were in the right place as we spotted a bunch of funny looking tourists dressed up in warm suits provided by Elding tours looking prepared for a rough afternoon in Faxaflói bay. As we boarded the double decker tourist…
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Cinema Paradiso
A few left over champagne glasses on the counter are the sole evidence of the previous night’s big opening party for Bíó Paradís. Without yesterday’s crowd of housewarming guests, we are able to view the new cinema in all its glory. Images…
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Porn Is Film Also
When I think about cinema, movies and film festivals, porn isn’t the first thought that comes to mind. Porn is the film genre with most releases per year. Even though RIFF doesn’t show the same percentage of porn films in their selection,…
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Some Like It Cold
It sounded like so much fun: watching a classic movie while splashing about in Sundhöllin, Reykjavík’s oldest swimming pool. After waiting in the drizzling rain outside the pool, we were invited inside by a bunch of young girls, dressed up in Fifties…
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New Visions
Twelve up-and-coming directors will present their first or second films in the ‘New Visions’ category at The Reykjavík International Film Festival (RIFF), one of which will go home with the festival’s Golden Puffin Award. This year’s films represent a diverse worldview—from Greece…
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The Seven-Year Itch?
This year, from September 23rd to October 3rd, the Reykjavík International Film Festival will be held for the seventh time. The seventh year is known to be a tricky one. Marriages at this milestone go through rough patches and ‘they’ say that…
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Cinephiles Rejoice
Summer is nice and all, with all its sunshine and what not. But there is something missing. Films in particular. And by films I mean something besides the Hollywood mainstream (and preferably without commercial breaks in the middle, like Icelandic commercial cinemas…
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Things to do in Þórshöfn
10:30 The eagle has landed Looking out of the window, the shadow of our airplane is shrinking. Below us is Þorshöfn, a little gathering of houses surrounded by uninhabited pampas and the endless ocean. It is not even noon, but we’ve already…
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Krua Thai
With watering mouths, my date and I arrived at Krua Thai. On our way to the harbour, where the restaurant is located, we talked about coconut milk, lemon grass and hot curry, so that our longing for Thai food would reach its…
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Bjarnfreðarson
Georg Bjarnfreðarson is a fucked up, middle aged lunatic. And he’s in prison for murdering a woman. But, after Georg implements some “prisoner friendly” changes – mandatory daily fitness and the first smoke-free cell block in Scandinavia – guards and inmates form…
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Snorkelling in Between Two Continents
Mother Earth is a stable, solid rock – that has always been something I was sure of. Walking on this special piece of earth called Iceland, this fundamental certainty vanishes. Observing erupting volcanoes and hot steam leaking out of the mountains, I…
