Discoveries from Iceland World Cinema

A young woman goes to extreme measures to make her father stop drinking.

A father and his child wake up from a bad dream.

A film about Stalín not being here

After a great storm, is there silence?

Two lifelong friends find their small-town routine thrown into peril when a buxom and beautiful woman their own age shows up in their hot tub.

Canto II out of XIII

A short film about a troubled Icelandic teen and his relationship with his younger brother.

As a huge storm approaches Hera's dilapidated, seaside home, she must decide whether it'sfinally time to move to the city with her son or stay and face the calamity.

A young couple risks their financial situation and relationship, when they follow in the footsteps of their ancestors and start working as independent fishermen on their small fishing boat, Skuld. Does Iceland's oldest industry have a future or will it disappear with the coming generation?

Sundhöll Reykjavíkur (The Reykjavík Swimming Palace), the city’s first swimming pool, was inaugurated in 1937. The building is an architectural landmark, which for decades has functioned as a cornerstone for the elderly that live in the neighbourhood, and other daily guests. The documentary captures the atmosphere of the building by focusing on the daily routine and the colourful characters that frequent the pool. It documents an era that is coming to an end and pays tribute to disappearing generations.

The Ice Climber is a documentary about Gudmundur Hafsteinn, a 10 year old Icelandic boy, who is a climber by nature. He practices climbing at an in-door climbing house. As his ability in climbing develops, his family takes him on a journey where he gets to try climbing a real cliff. This has been the boys dream and the purpose of his climbing practice. The journey finally brings him to a wall of ice where the young boy meets his ultimate challenge. Can he do it?

A film about the life of pater Jón Sveinsson, author of the books on Nonni and Manni.

A visit to the island of Drangey in Skagafjörður. The film shows the traditional egg collecting in the cliffs of Drangey and shows some historical sites on the Island.

Klás wanders into an apartment complex, dressed as Santa Claus, with the intention to jump of the balcony but wasn't counting on meeting a young girl that happens to still believe in Santa.

A short fast paced cut-out animation. It tells the story of Diane and Bob, the last two surviving Martians on Mars.

Nine-year-old Anna has moved to a new town. Anna's mother sends her out to make some friends, but the children in the playground are unwelcoming. Apart from one boy, Búi. He encourages Anna to do a heroic deed, to show the other children what she's made of.

The story of a man who falls for the temptation of artificial intelligence.

Canto VIII out of XIII

Trolls in various forms have accompanied mankind from the beginning, depending on how people understood the word each time. They can be people outside society who also symbolise the fears haunting those within it.

Icelandic Pop music is a World known brand today. Before that happened, scores of Icelandic musicians had tried their luck abroad with little success. Today Icelandic bands and artists are household names along with the pristine Nature of Iceland. How did that happen and who are the main players? In this documentary series, we follow the evolution of Icelandic popular music from around 800 AD until today.

In Fit Hostel near Keflavik airport in Iceland is a refugee camp for asylum seekers in Iceland. Many have been there for years while their cases are being processed.

An experimental documentary about the artist BBPrince as he tries to make a film that captures the atmosphere of the situation years in Iceland

A documentary film about soil conservation and those areas where it has been successful. The work of the Soil Conservation Service is discussed and the need to expand its resources.

About three Icelanders living in London, leading very different lives. The film concentrates on the events of one day in June, culminating in an independence celebration at the Icelandic embassy, where all three meet up.

This is a story of a little girl overcoming her fear. When we see her for the first time she is at her home, scared of the world that surrounds her. She is an observer when she watches her parents argue and other kids play. She has no friends and other kids often laugh at her. That causes her to shut off and makes her shy and afraid to become visible to others. But when she sees a classmate bullied by two older boys, she is the only one who takes a stand and causes other kids to acknowledge her. She overcomes her shyness and fear.

A marriage hangs in the balance so the husband tries to save it by doing chores around the house which doesn't go according to plan.

Buffalo consists of a few handheld, almost still shots, that bring up questions concerning the border of reality and fiction, presence and past in memory reconstructed.

The Wedding Gift tells a tale of a mother, a son and his wife and a sewing machine. Filmed almost entirely in a car, the cramped space gives tension to both the bumpy journey to a wedding and the characters’ psychology.

In the wake of a devastating, life-changing incident, a teenage girl grapples with the weight of silence and the fight to reclaim her voice, as her world threatens to fall apart with her in the middle of it. Because we need to believe survivors. Because shame needs to switch sides. Because enough is enough.

A group of con artists infiltrate a secret operation to recover a valuable diamond hidden in an abandoned Soviet mine in Antarctica, only to discover the mission is far more dangerous than they anticipated.

Sveinn Þórarinsson (1821-68), kept a diary from his youth until death. His diary entries that concern music are the leitmotif in the documentary Of Strings and Song, which traces the transformation in musical life in 19th century Iceland when new instruments, scales and songs where brought in from the continent.

Tumi Björnsson want's to find out if anyone else can be Tumi Björnsson. He hires a film crew to document the process of transforming the 18 year old American, Silas into Tumi Björnsson. Will Silas be able to trick Tumi Björnsson's mom into thinking that he is Tumi Björnsson?

On the last day of school a divided class has to find the answer to the age old question: If the teacher is 15 minutes late, are you allowed to leave class?

November 10th 2023, the day that a volcano eruption forced the whole population of Grindavik to leave their homes.

Laxaþjóð | A Salmon Nation tells the story of a country united by its lands and waters, and the power of a community to protect the wild places and animals that helped forge its identity.

Rolling stone and absentee father Benóný, is in for a surprise when his path unexpectedly crosses with his teenage daughter, blissfully unaware of him, on vacation in his isolated seaside village.

Gunnar is a farmer who lives in a farm in the northern part of Iceland. He lives alone with his sheep's and doesn't leave the farm very often. But one day something happens that can change his live forever.

Dear Arctic is a documentary film about researchers at the Arctic Center at the University of Lapland, Rovaniemi. The documentary transports the viewer from Rovaniemi to fieldwork in the lands of arctic indigenous peoples and reindeer herders to Siberia, to climate change research in Iceland and Greenland, and back to Finland to the inner reflection of critical arctic research and research work. In the film, six researchers from three different research areas open their work. The Arctic Center is better known internationally than within Finland, and the documentary increases awareness of its unique activities, especially in the research center's home country. The film brings Arctic research closer to the public in an easily understandable form.

Gudmundur Felix lost both arms in a horrible work accident in 1998, when he climbed a high voltage mast for repair work. His biggest wish is to hug his daughters and Felix is set on getting an arms transplant. He swims against the current for 20 years to make this happen. The waiting is endless and the health care system is not in favor of revolutionary methods needed for a transplant of this magnitude. In the end a miracle is within arms reach, thanks to cutting edge progress in modern medicine.

Megas (Magnus Þór Jónsson, 1945) occupies a central place in Iceland as a singer, songwriter and writer. Influenced by rock and roll and folk music, his work is also deeply rooted in classical Icelandic poetry. He has, in particular, had a lifelong interest in the Hymns of the Passion by Hallgrimur Petursson (1614-1674) whose baroque poetry holds a special place in Icelandic culture and is solemnly recited at the radio every Easter.

During World War II, a private war erupted within an Icelandic family, hidden behind the veil of rumors and time. The filmmaker delves deep into the secrets of this family – his family – and the silence kept for more than 80 years is broken on both sides of the trenches.

In the Fossvogur Military Cemetery in Reykjavik Iceland there are 6 gravestones with the names of the crew of a Wellington bomber that in 1941 crashed into Svartahnjúk (Black Peak) mountain in the Snæfellsnes Peninsula in West Iceland. But the rescue team only found 4 bodies. The documentary Black Peak - a war story, tells us how the Second World War collided with the peaceful countryside in Eyrarsveit county and how the legend of the crew and the airplane have lived on for more than 70 years.

There is no one to say that a senior citizen can’t come up with great entrepreneurial ideas. In Senior Citizen Expand we meet two older gentlemen who take on a trip to China to put their idea into motion.

There is a genealogist in every Icelander. “Hverra manna ert thú? – Who are your kin?” is the favourite question among Icelandic people when they meet for the first time. The person questioned then names the family members of his clan, upon which the person asking is sure to know his opposite. The two of them are inevitably related, at the very least seven or eight generations back. Studying family history and family trees has always been something of a national sport in Iceland, much more popular than in other countries. This documentary film examines the various aspects and effects of family connections on Iceland and accompanies the filmmaker on his quest for his own Icelandic roots.

Kórinn is a documentary about the choir group Léttsveit Reykjavíkur which tally's up to 120 women. Being in a choir has been a tradition for many Icelanders in many years and here we get the chance so see how and why the choir group works so well together. We get to see positive emotions but also the negative ones. We get to know that friendships, that lasts forever, are created in this group and we also get to know the reason why people are driven to join a bunch of strangers to sing together.

An unexpected submarine eruption south of Iceland created an island, Surtsey, and changed our perception of the Earth. The Black Island is the epic Saga of Surtsey. The film depicts the evolution of life and our fascination and fear of the world´s untamed and still unknown forces. Using unique archive material and new films from visits to the Black Island.

This film is about the painter Sveinn Björnsson (1925-1997), and his struggles to perfect his art. Following a wide-ranging exhibition at the Kjarvalsstaðir Art Gallery in 1989, he has become tired of the fantasy style which he had been developing for thirty years. What needed to happen in order for him to create something new? What sacrifices would it involve? This film is about that struggle experienced by creative artists. The film is not a biography, or a learned review of the painter's style, but it does show a side of the man which very few see. One evening, he feels he is not alone in his studio; it feels as if some being is there who wants to help him.

Dimmuborgir are situated in one of Iceland’s most active volcanic zones. The film gives a clear account of the formation of this magnificant citadel of lava. The geology of the area is described and the viewer is brought into contact with its incomparable scenic beauty and birdlife as well as with the great danger facing this jewel in Icelandic landscape.

A documentary about driftwood in Iceland and the sculptor Sæmundur Valdimarsson.

A documentary about the Icelandic artist Sverrir Haraldsson

A documentary about the 50 year career of Ambassador Pétur Thorsteinsson in the Icelandic Foreign Service.