Robert Douglas THE ICELANDIC DREAM

Official Selection

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2001 - The Toronto International Film Festival 2001 - Pusan International Film Festival 2001 - Montreal International Film Festival 2001 - AFI Los Angeles Film Festival 2001

Nominated as BEST Scandinavian Film Year 2000

Gothenburg International Film Festival

Nominated as Best Film, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Script 2000

The Icelandic Academy Awards EDDA

WINNER Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor at

Blackpoint International Film Festival 2002

The Icelandic Dream (2000)

The Icelandic Dream was a surprise sleeper hit in the summer of 2001, ending the year as the 2nd highest box office hit of Iceland, behind Toy Story 2. The director and main actors were unknown before this film catapulted them into stardom and the film industry of Iceland. The film is now considered a classic and in light of the recent banking crash in Iceland, the film can also be viewed as a historical look at the beginning of the banking insanity that swept Iceland into economical disaster... The film is about money, power, love and family when Icelanders thought they were about to get rich...

Thirty-year-old Icelander Toti has a lot of problems, precipitaing an early mid-life crisis. His beloved football team have just been relegated to the Second Division, his 20-year-old girlfriend shows no interest in the sport, and his ex - also the mother of the daughter who he sees at weekends - is seeing an American, a people whom Toti despises.

But our hero has one card left to play. He's the sole importer for Bulgarian Opal cigarettes, known as the "the energy brand". Who cares if their special properties derive from an illicit substance?

This remarkably assured debut feature from Irish-Icelandic writer-director Robert I Douglas is a joy from start to finish, rarely putting a foot wrong. The writing is sharp, the performances assured and the command of cinematic language impressive.

The film is obviously low budget but, thanks to an appropriation of Dogme and documentary tropes - handheld camera, naturalistic lighting, jump cuts and direct-to-camera addresses - any limitations this could have imposed are turned to its advantage.

Though themes of masculinity in crisis and strong women/weak men are fast becoming familiar ones in Icelandic cinema, The Icelandic Dream elsewhere departs from the nascent conventions. There are no touristy images of harsh yet beautiful landscapes here, only a grey, wet, urbanised anonymity.

I sincerely hope that going against the grain here doesn't damage the film's box office potential outwith its homeland, where it has been a deserved smash.

Review from IO Film, UK.