Selma, a Czech immigrant on the verge of blindness, struggles to make ends meet for herself and her son, who has inherited the same genetic disorder and will suffer the same fate without an expensive operation. When life gets too difficult, Selma learns to cope through her love of musicals, escaping life's troubles - even if just for a moment - by dreaming up little numbers to the rhythmic beats of her surroundings.
The story of an Icelandic man and his slow descent into madness. Along his journey he meets Dagný, the initial cause of his breakdown. Other people he meets in the asylum have been committed for various reasons, such as signing cheques for Adolf Hitler and, believing themselves to be writing songs for the Beatles and telepathically transmitting to the band.
An elderly couple leave their retirement home to make one last journey back to their home in the Western Fjords.
Charming desperado Ossy, carrying a deadly secret, tracks down his childhood pal Jimmy in Iceland. But Jimmy, now with a family and a regular job, will do anything to hide his past.
Regína is 10 years old. Her mother, Margrét, works at a home for the elderly and her father is dead. The story begins one sunny summer morning when kids are leaving for the summer camp and Regína has been told she cannot go. While alone at home killing time she discovers her gift, which is hypnotizing singing. Her friend Pétur shows his talent for finding words that rhyme and together they increase the power of singing.
This Icelandic tale, loosely based on the real-life experiences of director Fridrik Fridriksson tells the saga of a boyhood spent in Iceland in the 1960s.
Devil's Island is a bitter sweet tale of Iceland in the fifties. Life is rough in Reykjavik's post-war slum of Camp Thule, where the abandoned US military barracks have been turned into makeshift homes. Struggling wives and their hard-working husbands try to make ends meet. The younger generation dreams of dollars, Rock'n'Roll and the American way of life. To celebrate or to drown their misery - they're never short of a good reason to booze. Devil's Island vividly depicts the everyday life of a wacky family, their neighbours and friends and shows how some of their dreams come true and others don't.
Set in present-day Reykjavík, Fiasco draws a narrative circle of interconnecting stories in which three members of the Bardal household deal with the secret loves in their lives. Karl, an old age pensioner, is busy chasing after an amnesic old screen legend. Julia, Karl's granddaughter, is torn between a mediocre bank manager and a wild sailor, and tells them both she is pregnant. But is she really? Steingerdur, Julia's mother, has a wild crush on a preacher who has a serious drinking problem, and ends up with a dead stripper in his Jacuzzi. The characters cross each other as the film progresses, until the three interwoven strands of the story finally come together in an explosive and hilarious crescendo full of surprises.
A little girl "kidnaps" her half-sister in order to get the attention of her father who left her mother years ago for another woman (who gave birth to her half-sister)
What could be better than knowing your future? And what could be worse? A love-filled childhood abruptly ends when catastrophe descends. A catastrophe that the child had foreseen yet failed to act upon.
An old man comes home with the ashes of his dead wife in an urn. As he waits for the kettle to boil, the relentless hissing of boiling water brings to mind memories. There is nothing ahead for the old man, only lack of purpose, sense of loss and loneliness. He embarks on a journey.
A whale-boat is making its final whaling tour of the season. It pursues and catches a whale, and then proceeds home. The men working on the boat have to find themselves different employment now that the season is over. Among the crew are two friends, Grímur and Bubbi. The film mainly concerns itself with their efforts to make some kind of contact with what is going on in Reykjavik.
In the summer of 1984, Iceland's king of country music, Hallbjörn Hjartarson, arranged the first and only Icelandic cowboy-festival. This celebration of western culture took place in Skagaströnd, a village of 700 inhabitants in the north of Iceland, and was attended by Iceland's leading country singers. This documentary describes, in an objective fashion, the general atmosphere of the festival and gives a portrait of the star of the show, Hallbjörn Hjartarson and his views on life and stardom.
