Icelandic film this morning to wrap up my selections at GIFF. It was quirky, fun, entertaining, didn't make you think too much.
I'm not going to bother summarizing the plot and doing an analysis - it wasn't that kind of film.
Best character: Grandma.
Opening scene. This is before you know she's Grandma. Old woman in hooded ski jacket trimmed with fur is sitting in a space you think is an office. On her lap is an animal, but I missed what kind. The man she's talking to is photocopying the screen of his laptop.
Her: weren't you going to buy a printer?
Him: shouldn't you go walk the dog?
Her: it's a seal
Him: it's a dead seal
Her: sometimes the dead are more alive than the living
And sure enough, they are. She carries around a seal, a dead, stuffed seal. Taxidermy stuffed. Turns out the seal is her purse. She keeps all her money tucked inside it (him?). And she seems to have all the money.
Lots of other quirky characters, living in this trailer park in the middle-of-nowhere Iceland. Take the odd pair of peace-loving substance users. They spend most of their time sitting in their car, smoking, and listening to music. When Grandma joins them, the seal is carefully placed on the hood of the car and his leash is tied to the antenna. In case he tries to run away.
Thus ends the 34th Göteborg Film Festival. In retrospect, I should have gone to some of the lectures. There was one on the line between documentary and journalism as in where does the one end and the other begin, that would have been interesting. I didn't do too badly - 5 films in a week. My swedish teacher said she went hard core last year - took the week off work and watched 4 films a day. I enjoyed all of my selections for different reasons. The Nordic ones, Happy Happy and Kings Road, had a lightness to them that you don't find in more mainstream stuff. This was my first experience with independent film. I will definitely have to do this again.
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