On Wednesday, my wife Brooke and I will be flying to Iceland for the fifth edition of the Reykjavik International Film Festival. We’re staying for the entire duration of the festival, which runs from September 25th through October 5th, and in addition to seeing films, we’ll be doing some sightseeing. We’ve rented a car for the entire time, and are hoping to see as much as we can, including the Golden Circle (the geyser at Geysir, the waterfall at Gullfoss and the site of the world’s oldest parliament at Þhingvellir National Park), the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, and possibly an overnight stay on Vestmannaeyjar, the Westman Islands. Other planned activities include whale-watching and horseback riding, depending on the weather.
All that to say that I haven’t quite decided how I’m going to cover the film festival yet. Ideally, I’ll be able to blog as usual, posting reviews shortly after seeing the films, but because it’s a vacation, I might just be having too much fun to post right away.
Though the entire schedule hasn’t yet been posted, the main program (Open Seas) features the following 18 films:
- 33 sceny z zycia (33 Scenes From Life) — Malgorzata Szumowska
- Pandoranin kutusu (Pandora’s Box) — Yesim Ustuoglu
- Adoration — Atom Egoyan
- Avant que j’oublie (Before I Forget) — Jacques Nolot
- Piao lang qing chun (Drifting Flowers) — Zero Chou
- Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (I’ve Loved You So Long) — Philipe Claudel
- Good Cats — Ying Liang
- Revanche — Götz Spielmann*
- Frygtelig lykkelig (Terribly Happy) — Henrik Ruben Genz*
- Barcelona (A Map) — Ventura Pons
- Venkovský ucitel (The Country Teacher) — Bogdan Slama*
- Zui yao yuan de ju li (The Most Distant Course) — Jing-Jie Lin*
- A Feast of Villains — Pan Jian-Lin
- My Winnipeg — Guy Maddin*
- O’Horten — Bent Hamer*
- A Nyomozó (The Investigator) — Attila Galambos
- Dos Miradas (Two Looks) — Sergio Candel
- Til døden os skiller (With Your Permission) — Paprika Steen*
Some of these played at TIFF this year and some others were released earlier, but I haven’t seen any of them. So far, I’m planning on seeing the ones marked with asterisks based on either recommendations from friends or just my own interest. If you have any recommendations I haven’t marked, please comment and let me know why I should see them.
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Have an incredible time James! Hopefully you’ve seen that string of emails and can make it out on Oct. 8th. Remember, sleep is overrated.
“With Your Permission” played last year at TIFF if I remember correctly. I hadn’t realized that Paprika Steen directed it – I saw her recently in “The Celebration” and then in “Fear Me Not” at this year’s TIFF.
Your other choices look good too! It’ll be interesting to see the rest of that lineup…
Take care and I look forward to catching up with you when you get back…
Thanks, Bob! I hope that I’ll be sufficiently recovered by the 8th to make it out to the meetup. I’m sure I’ll have lots of tales to tell!
Well, I can tell you which film NOT to see (Pandora’s Box) … oh wait, I already told you.
Smashing look on the new site. I don’t miss the rotating pictures at all!
ps. lovely to meet you and Brooke earlier.
This sounds like an AMAZING adventure. Hope to check it out myself sometime.
Have fun!
Has anyone noticed yet that I didn’t get to ONE of the films I marked with asterisks here. Note to self: when in exciting new foreign cities to attend film festivals, dial down expectations of actually seeing films.
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