Gnarr (2010, Leeds Town Hall)

basics...
A documentary that follows comedian Jón Gnarr's entry into the Reykjavik election for mayor and his subsequent landslide victory that saw The Night Shift's Georg assume assume in 2010. Shown at the Town Hall for Leeds International Film Festival.

brilliant...
Gnarr is the funniest documentary I've seen. If I didn't already know the events depicted really happened I could easily have taken the film for a clever satire or mockumentary. Beginning low key with Gnarr addressing his web cam (looking very different to his Georg character), the movie continued in a low-key, student-project type style. There were no talking heads or voice overs, just the odd onscreen caption to identify the key players. Gnarr created the Best Party in the wake of the financial and volcanic disasters that gripped Iceland in the years before 2010, and his refreshing take on politics resonated with a public fed up with a city council they perceived as old fashioned and grid locked. The film shows Gnarr making up policies on the spot, from acquiring a polar bear for Reykjavik zoo to getting parliament drug-free by 2020, and being as surprised as everyone else at how his campaign got traction and propelled him to greater fame and power than before. As the film is made with Gnarr's total cooperation there is little critique of his progress or balance, but the whole documentary is an inspiration to people fed up with politics and is damn funny too. 

briefly...
Almost too good to be true, the story of Jón Gnarr is one that has to be seen to believed. A funnier documentary I am yet to see.

Jar City (2006)

basics...
Shown as part of BBC4's Icelandic season a couple of months ago, I first learnt of this film in the same channel's documentary 'Nordic Noir' which looked at Scandinavian fiction. Jar City, adapted from a novel, is a none-more-noir tale of murder and genetics. Detective Erlendur (Ingvar E. Sigurðsson) is a world-weary cop tasked with investigating the death of a man who may be linked to a rape many years earlier.

brilliant...
There are shades of Wallander in Jar City, but this film is much, much more bleak. Beautiful Icelandic vistas are breathtaking, as they always are, yet this film looks more at the cityscapes and has a grey, grimy look that is reflective of the dark motives of the characters. None of the characters are particularly likable, nor are they unlikable. Erlendur is calm and methodical - he has to be to deal with his tearaway junkie daughter and the disturbing avenues that his investigation leads him down. The film doesn't shy away from the reality of crime, with grisly images of murder, an exhumed body and the revolting shot of Erlendur eating a sheep's head, eyeball first, that he picked up at a drive through. Not an easy watch, but a gripping one all the same. It is not until some way through the film that I realised some parts were being told in flashback, showing the killer's attempts to find the truth that lead to his fatal deed. It's an effective device, even if it's already obvious why he did what he did before revelations are made. 

briefly...
An uber-noir police procedural with real depth and commentary on the state of contemporary Icelandic life. Atmospheric and unflinching, Jar City is not a pleasurable, easy watch, but it is gripping.

Night Shift / Næturvaktin (2007)

It's been sometime since I watched a foreign film or TV show, and the latest, Night Shift, which started being shown as part of BBC4's mini Icelandic season, ranks up there with Danish The Killing for quality Scandinavian television. Where The Killing was a tense, atmospheric drama to find a killer, Night Shift is a 12-part comedy-drama about 3 men who work in a petrol station, but is no less gripping and enthralling. 

Georg (Jon Gnárr - now mayor of Reykjavik!), Ólafur (Pétur Jóhann Sigfússon) and Daniel (Jörundur Ragnarsson) all work the night shift at a Shell garage in the Icelandic capital. Georg, the boss, has bizarre facial hair, a tendency to wear socks and sandals, and is very proud of his 5 degrees. He's also a bit of a fascist, railing against Ólafur's misguided desires to manage a pop group, or getting angry at a drunken customer, who has actually had a stroke. Ólafur is picked on constantly by Georg, but doesn't stand up for himself. He's a sad figure sometimes, eternally optimistic but forever broke - he believes the Nigerian email scam, especially when the supposed prince turns up at the petrol station! Daniel, the newest employee, is rather quiet and has run away from uni in Sweden, shuns his girlfriend and family and instead chooses to take photographs of dead birds and work the night shift.

Aside from the comedy, which is often squirm inducing stuff, there is a real dark vein, a pathos running through Night Shift as these 3 lost souls try to find comfort where they can, and disfunction spectacularly together. There is some commentary of Icelandic politics along the way, and Georg happily reminisces about his time in a commune in Sweden, and wants to go back there with the holiday fund that he makes the others pay into. By turns gentle, gross-out (when Ólafur starts lactating after taking protein shakes) and pointed, the humour in Night Shift always comes from a real place and never feels forced. Georg is as quick to anger and jump to the wrong conclusion as Basil Fawlty, and Ólafur is a good Manuel-like suffering sidekick. The fact it's from Iceland just adds something extra for my tastes. I really hope that BBC4 decides to show the sequels, Day Shift and Prison Shift, and the 2009 movie spin off that beat Avatar at the Icelandic boxoffice! 

Julia Bradbury's Iceland Walk (2011)

A couple of weeks ago BBC4 had 'Iceland Week', which consisted over a number of documentaries, films and a sitcom about or made in that wonderful frozen country in the north. The first one we watched was Julia Bradbury's Iceland Walk, which does exactly what it says in the title. I don't know who Julia Bradbury is (I think she's on Countryfile) and on the evidence here I wouldn't make a point of watching her in anything else. 

The best parts of the programme were the gorgeous shots of the barren, verdant or icy Icelandic landscape, coupled with interesting narration about the country and it's geographic features. Julia's work took her around and up the country around the famous volcano that erupted last year and grounded all of Europe's 'planes. Guided by a knowledgable Icelander, Julia walked through Moon-like terrain, waded barefoot through freezing streams and trudged across ashen no-man's-lands between huts that provided overnight shelter. Julia's commentary during the walks consisted mostly of exclaiming about how amazing everything was and looked and didn't venture much beyond bland platitudes or pronouncements. I think if I was walking with her I'd leave her behind somewhere. Other than that, it was a good introduction to Iceland, and for those like me who've been there, a reminder of how great it is and how much I want to go back.