Steinþór Birgisson

Askew – Works and Days of Magnús Pálsson

After a career more influential than most in Icelandic contemporary art, at 87, Magnús Pálsson stages his most substantial performances and undertakes a voyage both through his own catalogue and Icelandic autumn landscapes to his cottage, Askew, in Dalir county.

Megaphone

Hera and Orri experience a night of adventure in downtown Reykjavik. Excitement and attraction is in the air. In the morning light, the glow from the night before abruptly disappears.

Haunted Trails: The Fate and Apprehension of the Reynistadurbrothers

Haunted Trails is a drama documentary about the relationship of Icelanders with history and histories, the relationship of the living with the dead, about the sex life of ghosts and packed lunches. It attempts to capture the quiet joy of making sense of one’s surroundings and heritage, regardless of how bleak, indistinct and mystifying the pretext. What remains, is a vivid image of the Reynistaður brothers’ diet and recurring apprehensions.

John and Reverend John

He is accused of a good deal; collecting all kinds of rubbish around the refectory farm, allowing the place to deteriorate and general incompetence as a farmer. In addition, he is said not being able to control his temper, to have isolated himself from his flock and because of his oddness and idiosyncrasies his sanity has also been questioned. Is Reverend Jón an incompetent priest? If so, why isn’t he allowed to stay at his farm? Is it because he underfeeds his sheep? Or is it because members of the congregation want to get their hands on his eider down farm for themselves? Or is it simply his appearance, contradicting the accepted notions of what a pastor should be, that has triggered the hostilities towards him.

Spoils of War: The Saga of the Coventry Stained Glass Windows

The Stained Glass Windows had been salvaged from Coventry’s medieval cathedral before it was bombed out by German forces but in 1942 they simply disappeared. Much later, it is discovered that they had found their way to Iceland. How did this happen? It is a mystery of conflicting stories, misplaced documents and confusing contradictions.

In Exile Thinking of Home

The scholar Sveinn Bergsveinsson, a Communist in the 1930s, was trapped in Berlin by the outbreak of World War II and forced to work for the Nazi propaganda machine. Returning to Iceland, sick with tuberculosis, he found himself branded by both sides of the cold war political divide and barred from academic work. In desperation, he emigrated to East-Germany where he became a respected professor. He always hoped to return home but died in East-Berlin in 1988, a year before the wall came down. He left behind a wealth of documents, photographs, film and voice recordings which form the basis of this narrative.

Liverpool of the North

In the late fifties Iceland was isolated and backwards. Industrialisation had really just begun and the country was taking it’s first steps towards the ultra-modern society we know today. The US military set up a base next to the sleepy fishing village of Keflavik on the south coast turning everything on it’s head. The Americans outnumbered the locals three to one. Culturally it was as if a UFO had landed. The young people were more open to cultural influences than the older generation and this triggered a rock and roll explosion which then swept the rest of the country. It was the birth of Icelandic teenage culture. Because of Iceland’s location right between America and Europe the cultural influences mixed to produce an unique blend.